This is a copy of the briefing note that the Council of Canadians submitted to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (SOCI), to inform the committee’s deliberations on The Pharmacare Act (Bill C-64).
INTRODUCTION
The Council of Canadians is a grassroots national organization with more than 150,000 members and supporters organized in 30 chapters across Canada. Since our founding nearly 40 years ago, we have sought to protect our health care system and ensure that all of us in Canada, no matter our age, race, or economic background, can access the health care we deserve.
The Council of Canadians has been calling for a public national pharmacare program for more than two decades, and we have heard from countless Canadians struggling with high drug costs and inadequate insurance, including through our recent national town hall tour that spanned 18 different cities from coast to coast. In the past year, our organization has also collected more than 10,000 petition signatures calling for a public pharmacare plan, and our supporters have together made more than 5,000 phone calls to cabinet ministers and MPs.
We welcomed the introduction of Bill C-64 (The Pharmacare Act), which represents an incredible advance for public health care in Canada. The legislation speaks to the core Canadian value that people should be able access health care based on need, not on their ability to pay. Prescription drugs shouldn’t be treated any differently.
It also represents a crucial opportunity to rein in Canada’s increasingly unsustainable drug costs. Only through a single-payer approach will the federal government have the bargaining power necessary to reduce Canada’s sky-high drug prices, which are currently the second highest in the world – behind only the United States.
By launching national pharmacare as a universal, single-payer system that provides first-dollar coverage through publicly-administered provincial drug plans, Bill C-64 promises to do that.
Realizing that promise, however, requires that the federal government dispel the considerable confusion that exists as to its intentions for the program going forward. As it expands national pharmacare, the federal government must reiterate its commitment to a public, single-payer pharmacare program that covers all Canadians, as Bill C-64 spells out.
It equally requires that effective safeguards against corporate influence and conflicts of interest be instituted at all levels of the policy-making process, from the Committee of Experts to the newly created Canadian Drug Agency.
Ensuring that people get access to prescription drugs with their health card, not their credit card, must be the objective. Bill C-64 is a crucial step in this direction.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Pass Bill C-64 without amendments to ensure the rollout of national pharmacare as quickly as possible.
- Attach observations to Bill C-64 affirming the importance of pursuing a public, single-payer, universal approach.
- Attach observations to Bill C-64 to ensure robust protection against conflicts of interest in the policy-making process for the rollout of national pharmacare.