Health committee  Yes, absolutely. We need to understand that when we implemented the regime in Quebec, it was in order to cover the low-income workers with no private coverage at all. We expanded coverage. In terms of the working population, you have much better access for the working population

Health committee  The answer is yes. However, at the same time, you can have a different list of exemptions for the different provinces based on specific needs, but—

Health committee  —a national formulary, yes.

Health committee  That makes sense to me, but, as I mentioned in my presentation, you're not counting the federal tax subsidy spent right now for private regimes. This is more or less $1.4 billion a year, so in fact the number would be lower for the federal government.

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  Okay. In short, there is a problem with controlling private plan spending. In conclusion, the issue of costs aside, universal public insurance for drugs is a matter of principle. For too long, access to drugs has been thought of as a privilege provided by employers to employees

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My thanks to the committee for the opportunity to share my expertise on the issue. I would like to discuss two issues with you today. I will start with a few comments on the report of the parliamentary budget officer (PBO). I will then proceed wi

Health committee  That is something that hasn't been studied much. There are estimates, but so far the results differ greatly. For example, some studies in the United States show that if more drugs were covered by the plan, there would be fewer hospitalizations. In fact, this argument is being us

Health committee  I would like to answer that question. I provided my opinion to the Government of Quebec, which put in place a bidding system for manufacturers of generic drugs. I should point out that this is where there are the most shortages. It's true that some people feel that if prices ar

Health committee  When it comes to jurisdiction, pharmaceuticals are a bit of a problem because health care establishment is a provincial jurisdiction. When it comes to drugs, there's nothing in the Constitution, except that legal substances or illegal substances are to be decided by the federal g

Health committee  Do you want to start?

Health committee  I can give you a partial answer at least. It's estimated that about 80% of new drugs that arrive on the market have no therapeutic benefit over existing drugs. Yet if our system agrees to cover everything at any price, companies would end up engaging in major promotional campaig

Health committee  There are two ways of proceeding. If there is a medical reason to use a more expensive drug, there is currently an override system so that it can be refunded. Suppose there is a generic version of the drug, but the patient wants to continue using the brand-name drug because of t

Health committee  That's a very interesting question. It's important to understand that current private plans are in fact already generously funded in part by the government, by public budgets. For the Government of Canada, it is estimated that federal tax subsidies are 13% of overall spending fo

Health committee  In different countries, there are different practices. We need to be careful because sometimes you need to embrace the whole thing at once. What is interesting is that having no copayments in some countries is something that's absolutely great in terms of better access. Some cou