Post by kelvin on Sept 13, 2010 12:48:03 GMT -5
www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/13/health-nat-pharmacare-program-ccpa.html
A universal pharmacare program could chop more than $10 billion off Canada's annual health-care bill, according to a new policy study that its authors say "explodes the fallacy" that such a plan is unaffordable.
The report, released on Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, concludes the existing patchwork of private and public plans in Canada is inequitable, inefficient and costly.
"Canada’s pharmaceutical policies are a total failure," the study's author, Marc-André Gagnon, told reporters on Monday in Ottawa.
The report also finds that Canada is either the third or fourth most expensive country for brand-name drugs every year — ranked among the United States, Switzerland and Germany — because it deliberately inflates drug prices in order to attract pharmaceutical investment.
P.O.V.:
Would you support a universal pharmacare plan? Take our poll.
Meanwhile, Canada has one of the highest annual growth of drug costs among industrialized countries — much higher than countries that have universal pharmacare programs, such as France, Australia and Sweden, said Gagnon, a professor of public policy at Carleton University.
"The cost of such policies far exceed the benefits to Canadians from having a domestic pharmaceutical industry," he said.
The current system is also unfair, Gagnon said, because Canadians receive different coverage depending on what plan they're in and where they live.
Universal pharmacare would lead to savings of nearly $3 billion a year if Canada keeps its current policy, Gagnon said.
But the savings could increase to $10.7 billion, or 43 per cent of annual drug costs, if Canada cut all privileges to the pharmaceutical industry for drug costs, according to the report.
Last year, a report by the Canadian Cancer Society said some cancer patients pay thousands of dollars per year for drugs that keep them alive, while others don't pay a cent. The society called for an end to the discrepancies.
Dr. Joel Lexchin of the Canadian Health Coalition noted that older drugs for high blood pressure, known as water pills, cost just two cents per pill compared with up to $2 per pill for newer medications that are heavily promoted to doctors. The difference raises costs up to 100 times more than necessary, he said.
The report comes as provincial and territorial health ministers start a two-day meeting in St. John's, where rising health-care and drug costs are high on the agenda.
"Rising costs in health care are affecting every province, and any time that we can look at a program that will help contain those costs it's certainly worth looking at," Saskatchewan's Health Minister, Don McMorris, said in an interview from St. John's on Monday.
"Pharmacare program is certainly one of those areas. We had some discussion already."
All provinces and territories are grappling with rising health care costs and how to balance those costs with other programs, McMorris said.
A national pharmacare program would require agreement from all provinces and territories.
Read more: www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/13/health-nat-pharmacare-program-ccpa.html#ixzz0zQuB59uR
A universal pharmacare program could chop more than $10 billion off Canada's annual health-care bill, according to a new policy study that its authors say "explodes the fallacy" that such a plan is unaffordable.
The report, released on Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, concludes the existing patchwork of private and public plans in Canada is inequitable, inefficient and costly.
"Canada’s pharmaceutical policies are a total failure," the study's author, Marc-André Gagnon, told reporters on Monday in Ottawa.
The report also finds that Canada is either the third or fourth most expensive country for brand-name drugs every year — ranked among the United States, Switzerland and Germany — because it deliberately inflates drug prices in order to attract pharmaceutical investment.
P.O.V.:
Would you support a universal pharmacare plan? Take our poll.
Meanwhile, Canada has one of the highest annual growth of drug costs among industrialized countries — much higher than countries that have universal pharmacare programs, such as France, Australia and Sweden, said Gagnon, a professor of public policy at Carleton University.
"The cost of such policies far exceed the benefits to Canadians from having a domestic pharmaceutical industry," he said.
The current system is also unfair, Gagnon said, because Canadians receive different coverage depending on what plan they're in and where they live.
Universal pharmacare would lead to savings of nearly $3 billion a year if Canada keeps its current policy, Gagnon said.
But the savings could increase to $10.7 billion, or 43 per cent of annual drug costs, if Canada cut all privileges to the pharmaceutical industry for drug costs, according to the report.
Last year, a report by the Canadian Cancer Society said some cancer patients pay thousands of dollars per year for drugs that keep them alive, while others don't pay a cent. The society called for an end to the discrepancies.
Dr. Joel Lexchin of the Canadian Health Coalition noted that older drugs for high blood pressure, known as water pills, cost just two cents per pill compared with up to $2 per pill for newer medications that are heavily promoted to doctors. The difference raises costs up to 100 times more than necessary, he said.
The report comes as provincial and territorial health ministers start a two-day meeting in St. John's, where rising health-care and drug costs are high on the agenda.
"Rising costs in health care are affecting every province, and any time that we can look at a program that will help contain those costs it's certainly worth looking at," Saskatchewan's Health Minister, Don McMorris, said in an interview from St. John's on Monday.
"Pharmacare program is certainly one of those areas. We had some discussion already."
All provinces and territories are grappling with rising health care costs and how to balance those costs with other programs, McMorris said.
A national pharmacare program would require agreement from all provinces and territories.
Read more: www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/13/health-nat-pharmacare-program-ccpa.html#ixzz0zQuB59uR