Tired of waiting for the Liberals to finally keep their promise, New Democrats tabled their own bill on a national drug insurance program in the House on Tuesday.
The New Democrats and the Liberals reached a “support and confidence agreement” in March 2022, which provides that the NDP will support the government on key votes in the Commons, in order to avoid a snap election before 2025. In exchange, the NDP obtained a promise that the Liberal government will advance certain New Democrat priorities in Parliament.
One of those conditions was that the Liberals move toward creating a universal national pharmacare program, passing a bill before the end of this year.
But NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party’s health critic Don Davies now say they question the Liberal government’s real commitment to the program.
“We have seen that with this government, even if things are put in writing, it is not a guarantee,” Mr. Singh said Tuesday at a press conference in Ottawa. We have to continually fight, pressure, push them to deliver. »
Mr. Davies highlighted recent developments within the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which have indefinitely postponed major drug pricing reforms in Canada.
“The Minister of Health suspended measures that would reduce costs for Canadians because the pharmaceutical industry demanded it,” Davies charged.
Pressure from the minister?
At the end of last year, Minister Jean-Yves Duclos wrote to the president of this independent price regulator to request that the consultation period on the proposed changes be extended. The minister said he wanted to give pharmaceutical companies, patient groups, provincial ministers and his office more time to understand the reform.
The letter caused a schism within the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which resulted in the resignation of several of its members. Minister Duclos has repeatedly denied having exerted undue pressure on this independent regulator.
“We are deeply concerned and I think there is not enough attention given to this issue. It is very disturbing,” Mr Singh said on Tuesday.
Minister Duclos confirmed on Tuesday that his government was still consulting with the provinces and experts on its own drug insurance bill. “A lot of work remains to be done to be able to table this bill by the end of the year,” he admitted, however, on his way to the weekly cabinet meeting.
While the deal between the Liberals and New Democrats specifically called for the bill to pass by the end of the year, Duclos said he couldn’t guarantee it would get there.
“It’s a minority government. We obviously don’t control the House of Commons, but we will do everything we can to be able to both table and pass the bill by the end of this year,” he said.
The agreement between the Liberals and the NDP was not specific as to the content of the program that should be included in the bill.
A committee of experts
The NDP version of the bill states that a federal pharmacare program must be universal, single-payer and public. Singh says when negotiating the deal last year, the NDP expected the Liberal government to follow these guiding principles.
“They knew very well what we wanted and so they were warned,” he said on Tuesday. We have provided them with the way forward and now we will wait and see what the government does. »
The NDP bill is based on recommendations from a government-commissioned report to the National Pharmacare Implementation Advisory Council, led by Dr. Eric Hoskins, MP Davies said on Tuesday. .
The Hoskins report recommended that the federal government work with provincial and territorial governments to establish “a universal, public, single-payer plan” for prescription drugs in Canada. Mr. Davies argues that the Liberals have not yet committed to it.
If passed, the bill would not require the government to provide a drug insurance plan, but would set the parameters for its operation.
The NDP bill also calls on the government to establish an independent drug agency to advise it on insurable drugs and how prescription drugs should be used.
It would also require the government to monitor the safety and effectiveness of drugs, and to negotiate price and supply agreements with manufacturers.
However, the government is already determining the mandate of such an agency. In 2021, Ottawa tapped former Ontario Health Acting CEO Susan Fitzpatrick to lead the “Canadian Drug Agency Transition Office.”