Canadian employers looking to redesign their benefits plans are in a holding pattern until they hear more details on the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party’s joint proposed national dental-care and pharmacare programs. Last week, the two parties announced plans to form an alliance until 2025 in order to deliver these programs […]
Prescription drug costs for public drug plans rose to $12.5 billion in 2019/20, a 3.7 per cent rise in spending since 2017/18, driven primarily by increases in the use of higher-cost drugs, according to a report by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. The report, which reviewed data from the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information […]
While the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is in agreement with the general intent of the Ontario government’s proposed changes to the OHIP+ program, it’s strongly encouraging a number of considerations to preserve the revised program as planned and avoid unintended consequences. The proposed amendments would roll back the OHIP+ program, which was introduced […]
The Ontario government is proposing a rollback of OHIP+, which would restrict the free prescription drug coverage program to dependants under age 25 who aren’t covered by private plans. The previous Liberal government implemented the program in January 2018 with an estimated cost of $465 million annually. It covered all OHIP-insured dependants under age 25 […]
There was a lot of news to share from the pension, investment, benefits and human resources industries this month. Here are the 10 most popular online stories of the month: 1. Employer-paid benefits to be subject to new B.C. health tax 2. Ontario government to become second payer under OHIP+ changes 3. Great-West Life’s Jeff […]
Ontario’s new Conservative government has announced changes to the province’s youth pharmacare program to make it second payer for Ontarians under age 25 who have coverage through private benefits plans. “Today, our government is announcing our intent to fix the OHIP+ program by focusing benefits on those who do not have existing prescription drug benefits,” […]
The House of Commons’ standing committee on health is recommending the creation of a universal, single public payer prescription drug coverage program for all Canadians. “The committee believes that the best approach for the creation of such a program is through the expansion of the Canada Health Act to include prescription drugs dispensed outside of hospitals as an insured service,” […]
Ontario’s move to expand its youth pharmacare program to seniors in 2019 could be a significant win for plan sponsors offering retiree benefits. “A company would see significant balance-sheet reduction and lower accounting expense, as well as lower cash costs,” says Nabil Merali, senior vice-president and Ontario market leader for health and benefits at Aon Hewitt. […]
Ontario’s political parties are busy making promises about key benefits issues as they prepare for this June’s election campaign, with the governing Liberals announcing a plan expand the OHIP+ pharmacare program to seniors and the New Democratic Party proposing action on dental care. On Tuesday, just days after the Ontario NDP pledged universal pharmacare and dental coverage should […]
As the new year gets underway, it’s a busy season for predictions about what’s ahead for 2018. When it comes to employer-sponsored drug plans, costs have been a rising concern in recent years. According to projections released by Aon Hewitt in December, costs for extended health-care plans will likely rise by six per cent in […]