5 ms·

Still waiting for that electoral reform ...

smnrchrds 6y ago
Forget about electoral reform. It looks like they are going to completely botch pharmacare. EDIT: I am getting downvoted, which is fair. I did not provide any context and assumed it was common knowledge. In his throne speech, Trudeau had this to say about pharmacare: > The Government remains committed to a national, universal pharmacare program and will accelerate steps to achieve this system including: - Through a rare-disease strategy to help Canadian families save money on high-cost drugs; -Establishing a national formulary to keep drug prices low; -And working with provinces and territories willing to move forward without delay. Essentially, the government will try to make drugs a tiny bit cheaper for consumers. It does not look the Pharmacare program is going to be universal and free, like the Medicare is. But perhaps your 2000$ per month drug price would come down to 1500$ per month, if you are below a certain income threshold, etc, etc. This is not nowhere near enough after Liberals promising Pharmacare for decades. EDIT 2: The price of insulin in Canada is an order of magnitude lower than the US. Despite this, many Canadians are still forced to forego or ration their insulin and other drugs and supplies [0][1]. Reducing prices does not work nearly as well as one might think. Making them free does. > At T1International, we found that 19 per cent of Canadians with type 1 diabetes had rationed insulin in the last year; 3 per cent were rationing at least once per week. > Yes, Canada has less insulin rationing than the US (25 per cent) and at lesser intensity for sure; Americans who rationed often skip doses daily whereas rationing once per week or month was more common here. But Canada is a far cry from countries like the United Kingdom, where there was essentially no insulin rationing reported. > In the U.K., all diabetes supplies, including insulin, are covered by the National Health Service. Such is also the case in many other high income countries. Even many middle income countries, like Morocco, cover the cost of insulin for their diabetic population. [0] https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/07/29/canada-shouldnt-be-smug-about-insulin.html https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/07/29/cana... [1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/blog/the-soaring-cost-of-insulin-1.4995290 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/blog/the-soaring-cost-of-...
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  Pharma sounds like something that should belong 100% to the provinces.
  - smnrchrds 6y ago
    Even medical care is strictly withing provincial jurisdiction. But the only reason we have universal coverage in the form of Medicare is that the federal government forced provinces to offer a minimum set of services through the power of funding. I am glad they did it, and I hope they expand it to Pharmacare, but I am not holding my breath.
    - 908B64B197 6y ago
      The feds basically offered a subsidy right? It's the provinces that truly made it a centralized public system no?
      - smnrchrds 6y ago
        You know how the US forced all states to increase drinking age to 21? That's how Canada forced all provinces to adopt universal healthcare. Essentially, there is a minimum set of requirements the provincial healthcare plans must offer. They are free to not adhere to it, but then the amount of funds they get through Canada Health Transfer (money from the federal government given to provincial governments to spend on healthcare) will get reduced or completely removed. Canada Health Transfer accounts for approximately 10% of all provincial government revenues, at least in Alberta and Ontario that I checked. It's a serious bit of change and a strong incentive to follow federal guidelines. As a side note, the fact that the federal government can use its spending powers to enforce policy that is not within its jurisdiction is very unpopular in Quebec and one of the changes Quebec wants made to the constitution. https://budget.ontario.ca/2019/chapter-3.html#section-6 https://budget.ontario.ca/2019/chapter-3.html#section-6 https://globalnews.ca/news/3496355/quebec-canada-constitution-amend-reopen/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3496355/quebec-canada-constitutio... https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/2019/07/federal-spending-power/ https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/2019/07/federal-spendin...

Forget about electoral reform. It looks like they are going to completely botch pharmacare. EDIT: I am getting downvoted, which is fair. I did not provide any context and assumed it was common knowledge. In his throne speech, Trudeau had this to say about pharmacare: > The Government remains committed to a national, universal pharmacare program and will accelerate steps to achieve this system including: - Through a rare-disease strategy to help Canadian families save money on high-cost drugs; -Establishing a national formulary to keep drug prices low; -And working with provinces and territories willing to move forward without delay. Essentially, the government will try to make drugs a tiny bit cheaper for consumers. It does not look the Pharmacare program is going to be universal and free, like the Medicare is. But perhaps your 2000$ per month drug price would come down to 1500$ per month, if you are below a certain income threshold, etc, etc. This is not nowhere near enough after Liberals promising Pharmacare for decades. EDIT 2: The price of insulin in Canada is an order of magnitude lower than the US. Despite this, many Canadians are still forced to forego or ration their insulin and other drugs and supplies [0][1]. Reducing prices does not work nearly as well as one might think. Making them free does. > At T1International, we found that 19 per cent of Canadians with type 1 diabetes had rationed insulin in the last year; 3 per cent were rationing at least once per week. > Yes, Canada has less insulin rationing than the US (25 per cent) and at lesser intensity for sure; Americans who rationed often skip doses daily whereas rationing once per week or month was more common here. But Canada is a far cry from countries like the United Kingdom, where there was essentially no insulin rationing reported. > In the U.K., all diabetes supplies, including insulin, are covered by the National Health Service. Such is also the case in many other high income countries. Even many middle income countries, like Morocco, cover the cost of insulin for their diabetic population. [0] https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/07/29/canada-shouldnt-be-smug-about-insulin.html https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/07/29/cana... [1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/blog/the-soaring-cost-of-insulin-1.4995290 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/blog/the-soaring-cost-of-...

908B64B197 6y ago
Pharma sounds like something that should belong 100% to the provinces.
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  Even medical care is strictly withing provincial jurisdiction. But the only reason we have universal coverage in the form of Medicare is that the federal government forced provinces to offer a minimum set of services through the power of funding. I am glad they did it, and I hope they expand it to Pharmacare, but I am not holding my breath.
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    The feds basically offered a subsidy right? It's the provinces that truly made it a centralized public system no?
    - smnrchrds 6y ago
      You know how the US forced all states to increase drinking age to 21? That's how Canada forced all provinces to adopt universal healthcare. Essentially, there is a minimum set of requirements the provincial healthcare plans must offer. They are free to not adhere to it, but then the amount of funds they get through Canada Health Transfer (money from the federal government given to provincial governments to spend on healthcare) will get reduced or completely removed. Canada Health Transfer accounts for approximately 10% of all provincial government revenues, at least in Alberta and Ontario that I checked. It's a serious bit of change and a strong incentive to follow federal guidelines. As a side note, the fact that the federal government can use its spending powers to enforce policy that is not within its jurisdiction is very unpopular in Quebec and one of the changes Quebec wants made to the constitution. https://budget.ontario.ca/2019/chapter-3.html#section-6 https://budget.ontario.ca/2019/chapter-3.html#section-6 https://globalnews.ca/news/3496355/quebec-canada-constitution-amend-reopen/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3496355/quebec-canada-constitutio... https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/2019/07/federal-spending-power/ https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/2019/07/federal-spendin...