Pharmaceutical and insurance companies’ desire to maintain the current patchwork system and merely have the federal government “fill the gaps” left by private coverage protects the industry’s bottom line because a single-payer program would drive down drug prices, Donya Ziaee with the Council of Canadians wrote in a blog post last fall. This goes against advocates’ visions for a national public program that covers all Canadians. In an email, the company’s vice-president of strategic communications Laura Pagnotta added that “a public-private model in drug coverage should be maintained so all Canadians have the same, or better, coverage than they currently have today.” Many companies echo the association’s statement, including Hoffmann-La Roche. Similarly, a written statement from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association said it is “supportive of the goal of universal pharmacare” and it’s crucial the new program focuses on Canadians without coverage and “does not erode the benefits over 27 million Canadians depend on.” ![]() Public statements from large industry groups, like Innovative Medicines Canada, welcome the federal government’s efforts to improve access to pharmaceutical drugs but insist a national program must build on the existing private system and improve access for uninsured and underinsured Canadians. ![]() The Council of Canadians also identified an uptick in the insurance industry’s lobbying of Health Canada between March and January - a fourfold increase compared to the 2015-2019 average. By Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporterīig Pharma has stepped up its lobbying game ever since the federal NDP struck a deal to prop up the Liberals’ minority government contingent on several big-ticket items - including progress on national pharmacare.Īnnounced last March, the Liberal-NDP agreement hinges on the federal government launching a dental care program for low-income Canadians and “continuing progress towards a universal national pharmacare program by passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023.”įrom March 2022 to January 2023, large pharmaceutical companies and lobby groups recorded just over three times more lobbying communications with Health Canada than their yearly average from 2015 to 2019, according to data compiled by the Council of Canadians.
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