As Benefits Canada reported last week, the Ontario government announced in its 2017 budget that it will begin offering universal pharmacare to youth under the age of 25. The program will take effect on January 1, 2018, and will cover the 4,400 medications in the Ontario drug benefit formulary. “By eliminating financial barriers to prescribed drugs, […]
Ontario is introducing a pharmacare program for all residents aged 24 and under, Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced Thursday as he tabled the province’s 2017 budget. The new program will launch on Jan. 1, 2018, and will offer universal drug coverage for all medicines listed in the Ontario drug benefit formulary. There will be no copayment […]
As Ontarians wait to see what’s in the provincial budget today, the Ontario New Democratic Party is getting ahead of the debate with its promise to implement a universal pharmacare plan should it win next year’s election. The NDP hopes the plan will ”reduce drug costs faced by individuals, businesses, municipalities, and other private payers; and increase […]
British Columbia PharmaCare has partnered with Pacific Blue Cross to introduce new claims technology that aims to improve the process for plan members seeking approvals for coverage of higher-cost drugs only partially covered by the provincial health-care system. To be eligible for drugs that require special authority under the province’s public drug program, plan members […]
A special panel convened to make recommendations on the future of prescription drug coverage in Canada is calling on the federal government to create a universal public insurance plan for necessary medicines. The Citizens’ Reference Panel on Pharmacare, which is made up of 35 people from every province and territory randomly selected in a “civic […]
Canada shouldn’t adopt New Zealand’s national pharmacare system, a new study from the Canadian Health Policy Institute argues. The study by the think-tank examined prices for 248 drugs in nine clinical categories and found 74 per cent were approved for marketing in New Zealand, compared to 90 per cent in Canada. New Zealand also has […]
The pharmaceutical company Mylan has been making headlines this week for hiking U.S. prices for EpiPens by 500 per cent. In 2007, two EpiPens cost about $100. Today, the same set costs $600. As concerns about the price hikes mount, the public outcry has caused Mylan to promise a generic EpiPen that it will sell for $300 […]
Now that the marketplace has moved past the golden era of drug plan management, where one could do nothing and see cost trends level off (or decline), it comes as no surprise that fear is setting in as the reality of cost increases set in.
A national single-payer pharmacare program is unnecessary and will be costly for Canadian patients and taxpayers, a study says.
Moving to a publicly-funded, single-payer system for prescription drugs could save Canada billions of dollars, finds a study by The Mowat Centre.