XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
   Support is growing for this.  Time to write your MP with a cc to you provincial   
   MLA.   
   Canada is supposed to have a national healthcare system.  Right now, it has   
   anything but.  This is a step in that direction again.   
   ___________________________________________   
   OTTAWA — The Canadian Press - Published Sunday, Oct. 05 2014   
      
     Call growing louder for national prescription drug plan   
      
   It’s a buzzword in the medical community, although one that hasn’t quite   
   caught   
   fire yet with Canadians at large: pharmacare, a national program that would see   
   prescription drugs covered through a publicly funded system rather than out of   
   pocket.   
      
   Many doctors are clamouring for it. Canadians dream of it when faced with   
   sky-high drug costs as they fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other   
   illnesses. Even private insurers aren’t entirely opposed.   
      
   And now politicians are starting to take up the cause. The federal NDP is   
   calling for national pharmacare, while Ontario’s new health minister has   
   emerged one of its most enthusiastic cheerleaders as he urges a federal   
   strategy.   
      
   “I can’t tell you how many times I’d have to go into the sample drawer,   
   because   
   I knew if I gave a prescription to someone, they weren’t going to fill it   
   because they couldn’t afford it,” Eric Hoskins, who’s also a physician,   
   said in   
   a recent interview.   
      
   A successful public health-care system isn’t just about access to a family   
   doctor or an MRI, Hoskins says.   
      
   “It’s also about being able to access the drugs, and if there’s a   
   barrier to   
   that, we’re not meeting that standard of a truly public health-care system   
   ....   
   Pharmacare speaks to Canadian values of fairness and equity and access.”   
      
   Canada, with its aging population, is the only industrialized nation with   
   universal health insurance but no public coverage of prescription drug costs.   
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   An estimated one in 10 Canadians can’t fill prescriptions because of the   
   expense. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has also   
   found that Canada has the second highest per capita spending on prescription   
   drugs in the OECD.   
      
   That’s largely because there’s no national standard for drug coverage or   
   drug   
   purchasing in Canada. The patchwork of provincial and territorial health-care   
   systems means Canadians with life-threatening illnesses are confronted with   
   costs that can vary wildly from province to province.   
      
   Even if ailing Canadians have private drug coverage, their insurers may refuse   
   to reimburse them if the medications aren’t considered to be offering value   
   for   
   money. Many medications, especially so-called orphan drugs that are prescribed   
   for rare illnesses, are exceedingly expensive in Canada.   
      
   “On pricing of medications, we pay way too much in Canada, especially for   
   generic drugs — both public plans and private plans are paying prices that   
   are   
   far too high because of the way we have established how we pay for the   
   drugs,”   
   says Danielle Martin, a physician and vice-president of Women’s College   
   Hospital in Toronto.   
      
   Canada pays generic companies about 18 per cent of the price of the brand-name   
   drugs, whereas in other countries, generic companies are asked to bid on   
   contracts, she says.   
      
   “And it’s amazing how the discounts start coming in. Other countries and   
   health   
   systems get staggeringly lower prices than we do.”   
      
   Canada also fails to buy drugs in bulk, the way the other OECD countries do —   
   although the provinces and territories have started to work together on bulk   
   purchasing, Martin says.   
      
   “Everybody knows if you buy your toilet paper in those packages of 40 rolls,   
   you pay less per roll than if you go to the corner store and buy two rolls at a   
   time — it works the same with medications,” she said.   
      
   But in Canada, there are dozens of different purchasers for the same drugs —   
   private employer plans, public plans and hospitals among them.   
      
   “If we could pool our purchasing power, and buy drugs in bulk for everyone,   
   again we could negotiate much lower prices — so much lower that there are   
   very   
   solid economic estimates that suggest we could buy .... a number of drugs used   
   for chronic diseases for every Canadian who needs them for no more money than   
   we’re currently spending.”   
      
   A recently released study commissioned by the Canadian Federation of Nurses   
   Unions determined there are potential savings of up to $11.4 billion a year for   
   Canadian taxpayers via pharmacare due to decreased drugs costs and reduced   
   administration fees.   
      
   Pharmacare would also improve access to an array of prescription drugs for   
   aging Canadians, the study found.   
      
   Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose didn’t commit to a national strategy   
   last   
   week when pharmacare was raised as she met with her provincial and territorial   
   counterparts in Banff.   
      
   “It did come up, and we discussed it quite a bit in the scope of looking at   
   how   
   we can work together to purchase drugs across the country,” she said as the   
   conference wrapped up.   
      
   “The provinces and territories have come together on bulk purchasing and have   
   saved Canadian taxpayers literally hundreds of millions of dollars .... So   
   that’s the beginning of the conversation.”   
      
   Stephen Frank, vice-president of policy development and health for the Canadian   
   Life and Health Insurance Association, says private insurers are stung by high   
   drug prices too. About 60 per cent of Canadians have private drug coverage,   
   most through their employers.   
      
   “We do need a strategy around improving access to prescription drugs and also   
   lowering costs for prescription drugs; we’re very supportive of a national   
   strategy on bulk-purchasing, as well,” he said.   
      
   “The issue for us, though, is that what the provinces have done to date is   
   positive for the public plans across Canada, but they have not included   
   employers in those savings. Private insurers are ready to engage in these   
   dialogues and to do our part to improve things, we just need to be included in   
   the discussion.”   
      
   Frank adds his organization put in place a drug-purchasing pool for private   
   plans last year, allowing insurers to reimburse some massive claims.   
      
   “We paid over 4,000 claims last that exceeded $25,000 a year; the highest was   
   for over $1.2 million, there were dozens over hundreds of thousands. So it’s   
   a   
   completely new world and everyone is struggling with how to deal with it ...   
   the more you work together, the more you can spread those costs and manage it.   
   A national strategy serves us all.”   
      
   Martin says she’s more optimistic than ever that a pharmacare system is   
   afoot.   
      
      
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