Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm honoured to be here.
Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Jessica Diniz, and I'm the president and CEO of JDRF Canada.
JDRF is the world's largest charity focused on accelerating research to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and its complications, as well as helping to make life better every day for the people who live with it. We also advocate on behalf of the 300,000 Canadians living with type 1 diabetes, representing their voices on critical issues such as national pharmacare.
JDRF supports the goal of making access to medications and devices for treating and managing type 1 diabetes equitable and affordable for all Canadians. Patient choice needs to be a priority.
Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong autoimmune disease in which a person's immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, making them dependent on daily injections of insulin to survive. I just want to underscore that they require insulin to stay alive. I just want to make sure that is very clear.
Managing diabetes represents a significant financial burden for Canadians impacted by the disease, and many treatments and devices remain out of reach for some Canadians. We thank the government for bringing diabetes and the high cost to manage the disease into focus through coverage under Bill C-64.
While we align with the intention of Bill C-64 to provide fulsome, barrier-free access to treatments and devices for those living with diabetes, we'd like to raise a couple of recommendations to ensure that Bill C-64 meets the needs of all Canadians living with type 1 diabetes.
First, national pharmacare should not preclude anyone from using existing private and public insurance coverage to access insulin, whether they are listed on the national formulary or not. Bill C-64 should include a provision that clearly articulates this principle.
Second, based on consultations with health care providers and those living with type 1 diabetes, we'd like to see the list of insulins on the formulary be expanded to include more advanced insulins that help better treat the disease. It's a very limited list, including insulins that are rarely used and prescribed. It's important that physicians have therapeutic options to address the wide variation in individual patient responses to and tolerance of any particular drug, and that patients can access these, as one insulin may work well for one person and not for another. I think this is a very important point. By expanding the choice of medicines, you increase the number of treatment options available to help eliminate side effects, reduce complications and improve health outcomes.
We also have two areas of caution on how this program is implemented that we'd like to raise. Number one is changes in insurance coverage. The bill also creates a risk whereby the existence of the national formulary may motivate private insurers not to cover brand name insulins because some of the generic equivalents would now be available through the national pharmacare program. If this happens, the consequence could be the automatic substitution of a different insulin, which can impact health outcomes.
Another concern, number two, is stakeholder engagement and consultation. This will be critical to ensuring the implementation of a national pharmacare program that best meets the needs of Canadians living with type 1 diabetes.
JDRF is supportive of legislation that improves access to medications and devices for Canadians living with type 1 diabetes. We ask the government to provide clarity on this legislation to ensure it lives up to its intentions of equity and affordable access to medications and devices, and considers the input of various stakeholder groups that must have a voice now in how national pharmacare is rolled out.
It's critical to get the implementation of this legislation right to ensure it delivers on its promise, not only for those living with type 1 diabetes but for all Canadians who will benefit from this program in the future.
Thank you very much.