Join Federal Retirees in supporting Bill C-213, the Canada Pharmacare Act.
In roughly 24 hours, parliamentarians will be debating Bill C-213 and voting on next steps for the bill.
Bill C-213, or the Canada Pharmacare Act, establishes criteria and conditions for provincial drug insurance plans that must be met in order to receive federal funding.
In other words, Bill C-213 is Canada’s framework for pharmacare and your support is urgently needed to ensure this bill moves forward.
What is Bill C-213?
Introduced by the NDP in 2020, Bill C-213 is based on the recommendations from the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare. The Advisory Council was announced by the Liberal government as part of Budget 2018. Led by Dr. Eric Hoskins, former Ontario Liberal health minister, the Council was tasked with reviewing how to implement affordable, national pharmacare for Canadians.
The final report – A Prescription for Canada: Achieving Pharmacare for All – was delivered in June 2019 and included 60 recommendations, the first of which is that the federal government work with the provincial and territorial governments to establish a universal, single-payer, public system for prescription drug coverage in Canada.
Bill C-213 is modelled on the Canada Health Act, as recommended in the Hoskins report. This includes tying funding to the core principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility.
The bill does not prescribe a specific fiscal arrangement, it enables the federal government to negotiate with the provinces and territories.
The Canada Pharmacare Act also asks the federal health minister to establish an independent drug agency, in collaboration with the provinces and territories.
It is estimated that 20 per cent of Canadians have inadequate drug coverage or no coverage at all. National pharmacare will expand affordable drug coverage for Canadians.
A national formulary – a list of prescription drugs available to Canadians – is expected to lower costs for privately insured individuals as well as employers. According to the NDP, once implemented, this bill will save families more than $500 a year on average, whether they have insurance or not, and save employers $600 a year per insured worker.
The Canada Pharmacare Act is consistent with Federal Retirees’ advocacy priority to implement national pharmacare based on the principles of universality, public-single payer administration, accessibility, comprehensiveness and portability.
We believe that national pharmacare should coordinate with existing public and private prescription drug coverage to ensure current levels of prescription drug coverage, and health, are maintained or improved for Canadians.
There’s no time to wait. A vote on Bill C-213 is expected this week!
Join us in support of the Canada Pharmacare Act by sending a message to the federal government and your local member of Parliament now by using the tool below.