In 2025, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association hopes to see continued support for virtual health care and innovation, says Stephen Frank, the association’s president and chief executive officer.
According to the CLHIA, at least 10 million Canadians are covered for virtual care through their employer plan and roughly half a million visit their physician through a virtual platform.
Read: CLHIA focusing on improving pharmacare, rare disease drug coverage in 2024
“Virtual care is a technology that didn’t exist [10] years ago and has become increasingly common,” says Frank. “For those who have the opportunity to do a virtual visit, it’s a positive experience since you’re not booking a day off work and waiting forever in the waiting room feeling sick. So I think any moves to restrict virtual care or pull back is going to harm access to care and put more time and cost into the system.”
Virtual care is also an effective tool for serving remote and Indigenous communities, he adds. Not only does it allow physicians to see more patients than they could in person, it also brings some expertise from major cities and people can be seen by specialists that aren’t available in their community.
“Having this type of technology in a country like Canada that’s so dispersed and in many cases, remote, is a huge innovation that can create significant health improvements for people. Whenever communities are given access to virtual care, they certainly don’t want to see it taken away. So we need to find ways to encourage innovation and welcome it within the broader system.”
Heading into the new year, Frank expects conversations around wellness will continue to accelerate for employers. “The new technologies that are becoming available are offering employees more convenience, access to treatments and more of a personalized role in their health care. I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting topic for 2025, with lots of carriers rolling out these new solutions. There will be a continued focus on employee well-being and making sure they have their core benefits, but it will be more about employee experience with the use of technology and making things streamlined.”
The CLHIA is also hoping Bill C-64 related to pharmacare will be repealed, to ensure Canadians can continue to access their medications without disruption.
“Looking at national pharmacare, the government is contemplating essentially removing private carriers from the drug space and we think this is the wrong way to go,” says Frank. “We should focus on where the problems are and protect what’s working well. And that involves making sure people understand the value of what they currently have. We don’t want to see it disturbed.”
Read: Senate passes pharmacare legislation without amendments