Opinion: Ottawa is underfunding pharmacare and dental care, exacerbating current inequities
These principles should mean that any Canadian who requires a medicine is able to access it when they need it without being restricted by unnecessary rules and regulations, inhibited by cost or rationed according to where they live.
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However, diabetes medication coverage is limited to predominantly older, inexpensive drugs. Newer drugs, such tirzepatide (which directly treats Type 2 diabetes) and finerenone (which addresses some of its most serious side effects) are excluded — despite having been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and end-stage kidney disease in diabetics.
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Furthermore, only British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon have so far signed the necessary bilateral agreements with Ottawa for national pharmacare. Alberta and Quebec have indicated that they have no interest in the program, although both want their share of the money dangled by the federal government.
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When national pharmacare coverage is only available in some jurisdictions and restricted to older, inexpensive drugs, patients living in provinces that refuse to join the program will have better access to medications than those in jurisdictions that have signed on. This will not only perpetuate current differences between provincial drug plans, it will exacerbate them.
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The situation could become even worse if more drug types are eventually included in national pharmacare and employers see the expansion as a chance to save money by cancelling employees' private drug insurance coverage.
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As presently implemented, dental care and pharmacare satisfy few Canadians' expectations or needs. Ottawa should be transparent with Canadians about its objectives for the CDCP and national pharmacare.
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Instead of funding a national pharmacare program that fails to fill the gaps, a better way forward would be for Ottawa to transfer that money to provincial governments. The provinces should then use those funds to level up their coverage to that of the best available provincial plan in the country, and exempt lower-income Canadians from co-payments.
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