Singh threatened to pull out of the deal if the March 1 deadline wasn’t met with legislation that earned his approval, though he was open about a desire to keep the deal alive and see a pharmacare bill debated in the Commons. The reticence on the Liberals’ part largely came down to cost.Ī full fledged pharmacare program would cost the government nearly $40 billion a year by the time it is fully up and running, the parliamentary budget officer estimates. In December, the NDP and Liberals agreed to push back the original timeline, which would’ve seen legislation fully passed by the end of last year. Holland, however, said the legislation merely requires the government to “consider” those elements when designing the full drug plan.Ĭonservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spoke to the media in the foyer of the House of Commons Thursday, but walked away when reporters asked him for his position on the government’s pharmacare plans.Īs it stands, Canada is the only country in the world with a universal health-care system that does not also have universal coverage for prescription drugs outside of hospitals. The legislation makes reference to a single-payer, universal model - something Davies said he insisted on.Īnd it includes universal coverage as a binding principle that must guide the implementation of a future pharmacare program. They resisted, they delayed, they opposed, but New Democrats persisted,” said Davies. “The Liberals fought us every step of the way. Health critic Don Davies, who led the negotiations for the New Democrats, said the final pieces were put in place over the weekend. The NDP announced they clinched the negotiations late last week, in the lead-up to a negotiated March 1 deadline to table a bill. Its future had seemed uncertain amid a months-long stalemate over the wording of the legislation and the number of drugs they planned to launch with. Pharmacare is a central pillar of the political pact between the two parties, which has the NDP helping the Liberals stave off an election in exchange for progress on a list of shared priorities. “It is happening not by coincidence, it is happening because New Democrats fought and we forced the government to do this.” This is the dream of our party since the conception of our party,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday morning. In addition to testing the waters on universal coverage, the bill also fulfils a promise made to the New Democrats, who touted the legislation Thursday as the fulfilment of a long-held dream. “We know there’s far too many people who find themselves in worse and worse situations because they can’t quite afford to take the medications they need,” he said. Making sure contraception and diabetes medications are covered is really important, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday at a press conference in Thunder Bay, Ont. He said he believes the government will be able to show significant cost savings in fairly short order. “We’re going to have an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of that model.” “This is a proof-of-concept opportunity to try (providing) two drugs on a universal, single-payer model,” Holland said at a press conference Thursday. There will be some money set aside in the Liberals’ spring budget, Holland said, but the full cost of the program won’t be reflected until 2025. Holland said the cost is likely to be in the realm of $1.5 billion, but he said that estimate is very likely to change over the course of his talks with provinces. The bill allows the government to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover birth control, along with diabetes drugs and supplies, for anyone with a health card. The governing Liberals took their first major step toward national pharmacare Thursday as the health minister tabled a bill that paves the way for a universal drug program and secures NDP support in the House of Commons.īut Health Minister Mark Holland made clear there is still a long way to go before all drugs in Canada are covered under a federal program.
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