CHPI leads evidence-based opposition to government-run monopoly pharmacare.

Posted on March 7, 2018

In the recently released 2018 budget the federal government announced that it intends to implement national pharmacare. Pharmacare is proposed as a federal program that would replace all employment-based drug benefits in both the private and public sector, as well as replacing existing federal, provincial and territorial government-run drug plans.

As a prelude to pharmacare, the government intends to change, and further complicate, the already questionable rules that the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) uses to set the ceiling price for patented drugs.

CHPI has been the leading source of independent, evidence-based research and analysis on these 2 issues. Here are some links to the studies and commentaries that explain why these policy changes are unnecessary, bad for patients and costly for taxpayers...

STUDIES

Prescription drug plan coverage 2016: how many Canadians were insured, under-insured or uninsured? (2018).

Consequences of over-regulating the prices of new drugs in Canada. (2018).

Facts about the cost of patented drugs in Canada. (2017)

Does Canada need a Patented Medicine Prices Review Board? (2017)

Coverage for new medicines in public versus private drug plans in Canada. (2016)

Pharmacare: what are the costs for patients and taxpayers? (2015)

COMMENTARIES

Turns out nearly all Canadians already have drug coverage, despite the Pharmacare myths. - Brett Skinner | Financial Post | July 12, 2018.

Canadians are being fooled into thinking we'll like pharmacare. We really, really won't. - Brett Skinner | Financial Post | February 15, 2018.

How Ottawa is using a fake drug crisis to force through damaging pharmaceutical policy. - Brett Skinner | Financial Post | January 16, 2018.

Canada's regulator of patented drug prices is rigging data and risking our health. - Brett Skinner | Financial Post | December 5, 2017.