After several years of development, two long-awaited national health-care initiatives are finally taking shape, raising questions about their impact to employer-sponsored benefits plans.
In May, the Canadian Dental Care Plan was officially rolled out, providing dental coverage to Canadians who don’t have access to private dental insurance and whose annual net family income is less than $90,000.
Just a few weeks later, Canada’s national pharmacare program received approval in the House of Commons and now awaits passage in the Senate. The legislation would see the federal government offer first-payer coverage of some contraceptive and diabetes medications and sets the stage for a future full-fledged universal pharmacare program. It’s not yet clear exactly what drugs will be covered, since they’ll be the subject of negotiations with provincial and territorial governments.
While the potential impact of these programs on private health plans is still being determined, plan sponsors are asessing how these programs will shape their offerings moving forward. Several employers weighed in on these national healthcare plans in the 2024 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey, but you’ll have to wait until Sept. 17 for the results.
Similar to the expansion of national health-care programs, there’s evolution taking place within the consultant space, as more consultancies consolidate and expand their offerings to plan sponsors. In this year’s Consultants Report (page 14), we take a look at whether this ongoing consolidation poses any conflict of interest. While experts differ on what, if any, conflicts may arise from this trend, Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario branch, says it’s important to keep an eye on these evolving offerings and any conflicts, as transparency is one of the main challenges that the union faces in representing workers.
“We want to know, and workers deserve to know, who the service provider is and what the offerings are. In unionized environments, benefits and pensions are bargained provisions that are an important part of the overall compensation that workers receive. I think it becomes an issue of access to information and transparency in these different models that seem to be evolving.”
Within the investment side of the pension industry, Canada’s large pension funds are undergoing an evolution in their approach to green investment disclosures and this month’s Investment Feature (page 26) explores how disclosures are handled by the Alberta Investment Management Corp., the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the University Pension Plan.
Bertrand Millot, head of sustainability at the Caisse, says he wants to see a more direct effort by financial market regulators at all levels to ensure an appropriate amount of disclosure by companies on their environmental impact and the risks they face from the effects of climate change.
Read: How Canada’s large pension funds are approaching green investment disclosures
“Companies need to disclose more and disclose uniformly. This is why adhering to uniform standards is a good idea. . . . If companies don’t disclose, we don’t have any information.”
The only way for leading companies and those looking to invest in them will understand and manage their environmental risk is if its measured and shared appropriately, he adds.
Enjoy this latest issue of Benefits Canada and we’ll see you again in the fall.
Blake Wolfe is the interim editor of Benefits Canada and the Canadian Investment Review.