The Budget Office said on Thursday that a national pharmacare plan will cost Parliament and the provinces $11.2 billion in the first year..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Trudeau government promised to have a pharmacare bill passed by Christmas 2023..“Canada’s prescription drug coverage is a patchwork of a large number of drug plans and several more private drug plans, each with its own eligibility criteria, formularies, cost-sharing requirements and policies on generic and biosimilar substitutes,” said a Budget Office report Cost Estimate of a Single Payer Universal Drug Plan. There was “no certainty with respect to the federal and provincial shares of the cost.”.“We estimate the incremental cost to the public sector, that is, federal and provincial governments combined, to be $11.2 billion in 2024, increasing to $13.4 billion in 2027,” wrote analysts. .“In terms of the economy as a whole, we estimate cost savings on drug expenditures of $1.4 billion in 2024, rising to $2.2 billion in 2027.”.The numbers were figured out using a $5 fee for patients who want brand-name medications. The federal government expected the cost of medications to decrease by 20% because of a bulk buying discount..“We expect a common formulary would allow for stronger negotiating power and therefore the price of all existing drugs could be negotiated down,” wrote analysts..The Budget Office, in a 2017 report Federal Cost of a National Pharmacare Program, estimated that 12% of Canadians either had no insurance to cover prescription drug costs or went without medication due to unaffordable premiums or co-payments. Annual out-of-pocket expenses for prescriptions averaged $417 per household, it said..In 2022, the Cabinet entered a Supply and Confidence Agreement with the New Democrats, where they would pass a national pharmacare bill by December 31, 2023, to avoid a quick election. But so far, no bill has been introduced in the parliament..“It has got to be passed by the end of this year,” New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh earlier told reporters. .“That is just one step.”.“We want to see a national framework for pharmacare presented in parliament and passed in parliament by the end of the year,” said Singh. .“This is the framework necessary to move forward with universal public pharmacare.”.In an internal memo dated April 27, the department of Health stated that taxpayers were concerned about expensive new government programs..“Canadians are generally supportive of improving affordable access to prescription drugs but are also sensitive to cost considerations as government health-related expenses continue to grow, particularly in the context of COVID-19,” said the memo Pharmacare.
