Question Period Note: Pharmacare

• Our Government remains committed to strengthening Canada’s public health care system, including enhancing the affordability, accessibility, and appropriate use of prescription drugs.
• No Canadian should have to choose between paying for prescription drugs and putting food on the table.
• That is why we are committed to taking the critical next steps toward implementing national universal pharmacare so all Canadians have the drug coverage they need at an affordable cost.

If pressed:
• Budget 2019 announced concrete steps, including our intention to work with partners on the creation of a Canadian Drug Agency, to take steps to develop a national formulary, and to create a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.

Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare
• On June 12, 2019, the Minister of Health tabled in Parliament the final report from the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare.
o The Council recommended that the federal government work with provincial and territorial governments and stakeholders to establish universal, single-payer, public pharmacare in Canada.
o The council also recommended that the federal government provide long-term, adequate and predictable funding to provinces and territories sufficient to cover the incremental costs of national pharmacare.
• Following the Council’s interim report on March 6, 2019, Budget 2019 announced steps to be followed towards the implementation of national pharmacare, including working with provinces, territories and stakeholders on the creation of a Canadian Drug Agency, taking steps toward the development of a national formulary, and creating a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.
Perspectives on Pharmacare
• Provincial and territorial (P/T) governments are responsible for the delivery of health care to their eligible residents, including determining which drugs are publicly covered and under what conditions. Drugs administered in hospital are provided at no cost to patients, as required under the Canada Health Act (CHA). Though the CHA does not require P/Ts to cover drugs provided out of hospital, each P/T provides some degree of drug coverage, typically targeted to social assistance recipients, seniors, patients with specific diseases or those with very high drug expenses relative to income.
• Quebec is currently the only province that has implemented a mandatory drug insurance model requiring all residents to have prescription drug coverage through either a private plan or the public drug plan administered by the Ministry of Health.
• Healthcare priorities noted in the Council of Federation closing communique on December 2, 2019, included a call for the federal government to increase funding by an annual escalator of 5.2% to the Canada Health Transfer, and that that any pharmacare program must be developed in partnership with provinces and territories.

Modernization of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
• The Government updated the Patented Medicines Regulations to help ensure the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) has better tools and information to to protect Canadian consumers from excessive prices of patented medicines. These reforms include three main elements:
o Providing the PMPRB with additional price regulatory factors that consider the price of patented medicines relative to their value and impact on the Canadian health care system;
o Requiring patentees to report Canadian price information that is net of all adjustments (e.g. rebates, discounts), so that the PMPRB is informed of actual market prices in Canada; and,
o Revising the PMPRB7 “basket” of comparator countries, to include markets with comparable consumer protection priorities, economic wealth and medicine markets as Canada. Specifically, the list of countries has been updated to remove the U.S. and Switzerland, and to add Australia, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain (now the “PMPRB11”)

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