The Commons Health Committee heard from retirees Friday that Canada’s pharmacare system is like a hole-filled “burlap sack.”Chief policy officer and associate director of the 250,000-member Canadian Association of Retired Persons Bill VanGorder testified retirees fear losing superior private prescription drug coverage, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “What we have now is kind of like a mis-made quilt,” testified VanGorder. “It’s a patchwork with gaps in it covering everybody. What is being proposed now is more like a burlap sack. It is the lowest common denominator with holes in it.”Bill C-64 An Act Respecting Pharmacare proposes that cabinet “work toward the implementation of national universal pharmacare” in consultation with provinces. No deadline is fixed.About one third of Canadians over 65 years of age have private insurance coverage, said VanGorder. The figure rises to four-fifths of working age people, by federal estimate.“We are very concerned about the federal government’s proposal of a single public payer approach to deliver pharmacare because we fear this could crowd out private payers which currently cover the majority of Canadians,” said VanGorder.“A single public payer system would make it harder to access many of the newest and most effective treatments. Public drug plans are notoriously slow in covering new drugs and much more limited in terms of what they offer than private plans.”The association put forth a preferred solution: a narrowly targeted federal program to benefit the minority of Canadians who are low income, underinsured or have no drug coverage at all.“This approach which builds on existing programs will likely be easier and quicker to implement,” said VanGorder.“How is this plan going to impact the provinces and territories?” asked Conservative MP Anna Roberts.“That’s a key point. “They don’t know,” replied VanGorder. “They are fearful. I am not just assuming this. Our members write us weekly if not daily about their concerns and why this is going so quickly. Why don’t we know what is going to be covered?”On Thursday Health Minister Mark Holland told the health committee no employer would dismantle a workplace drug plan if Bill C-64 passes. “To drop your plan because a portion of medicine is covered, it’s just not logical, right? No company would do that,” said Holland. “This is a very, very tiny sliver of what employers offer. I can tell you from negotiating these things there is not the opportunity to go à la carte and if you try to pull out a tiny fraction you’re not going to save very much and what you’re going to show your employees is you are not serious about them."
