OTTAWA—Universal prescription drug coverage would be a nation-building project akin to the introduction of public health care in the 1960s, the head of a federal advisory committee on pharmacare said Wednesday.And while such a system would cost the federal government billions of dollars annually, Dr. Eric Hoskins warned that the current patchwork of public and private prescription drug coverage is unsustainable.“(The costs) will be significantly less than if we do nothing,” Hoskins told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa.“We recognize that there are incremental costs, significant incremental costs to building national pharmacare, but these costs are already being paid by Canadians. We are confident that the implementation plan we’ve put forward … fair and sustainable and accessible to Canadians.”In its final report released Wednesday, an advisory council appointed by the federal government called on Ottawa to work with the provinces to establish a single-payer, public system of prescription drug coverage.The system would provide coverage for a national list of prescription drugs and related products to ensure all Canadians have equal access to medicines — a list that would start with a smaller group of “essential medicines” in 2022 and be gradually expanded.The program would cost governments $4.1 billion in 2022, relative to what they would otherwise be spending on drugs without pharmacare. The annual public cost would rise to $18.1 billion in 2027, as the program expands from essential medicines to include a more “comprehensive” formulary.Under the plan, out-of-pocket costs for products on that list would not exceed $5 per prescription and expenses capped at $100 per year, to ensure that necessary medications aren’t out of the reach of Canadians. Hoskins said pharmacare would save Canadians $350 a year.And Hoskins underlined that the system has to be universal — not a ...
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