Briefing Note on Bill C-64 (Pharmacare Act) for the Standing Committee on Health

That promise, however, is threatened by a lack of clarity in the legislation on the model of pharmacare adopted, a lack of funding needed to ensure a swift roll out of the program, and a lack of safeguards to prevent corporate interests from infiltrating the committee of experts and unduly influencing the government’s deliberations. [...] RECOMMENDATION 2: The federal government should accelerate the rollout of national pharmacare by fully funding coverage for the first two drug classes, and by providing generous funding terms to the provinces and territories for the program’s subsequent expansion RECOMMENDATION 3: Bill C-64 must require that nominees to the Committee of Experts mandated by the bill fully disclose all potential con. [...] Rationale: The preamble of Bill C-64 declares that the government is committed to “the step-by-step implementation of national universal pharmacare … carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare.” Section 6 (2) of Bill C-64 is clear that funding given to provinces and territories for the first phase of pharmacare will “prov. [...] The Parliamentary Budget Office has recently calculated that the cost of universal coverage for the initial formulary of drugs is just $1.0 billion per year, a mere 0.19% of the total federal budget.5 Full federal funding for contraceptives and a more expansive list of diabetes medications would cost, at most, $3.0 billion per year, just 0.56% of the total federal budget.6 The fiscal impact of ful. [...] 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.8 These were the key reasons why both the Standing Committee on Health (2018) and the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare (2019) recommended a publi.