February 3, 2009

I like some of the Conservatives' plans. I wish they would
follow through on them.

Their pharmacy protection program was a good idea. Before
the federal election in 2004, they proposed a drug plan that
would cover costs over $5,000 a year per person. They
intended to spend $13 billion on health care over five
years.

Then their plan evaporated just when it's needed most.
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been thrown out of
work while prescription drug costs pushes them closer to
financial ruin. Even before the current crisis, many
families had to re-mortgage their homes just to pay for
costly prescriptions.

I know Conservatives can deliver on things they really care
about. They eagerly lowered taxes. While more money in
taxpayers' pockets can increase spending power, it doesn't
provide the coverage that a national pharmacare plan would.

Canada has the expertise in running an efficient health care
system; we should apply the same principles to pharmacare.

The new American administration understands those principles
too. U.S. President Obama sees the advantage: "I happen to
be a proponent of a single-payer health care program."

The advantage of a single-payer insurance system, regardless
of whether it's a health care or pharmacare, is that it
lowers administration costs because you don't waste a lot
of money deciding who is excluded.

Instead of a patchwork of insurance plans, a single-payer
system consolidates plans to provide the purchasing power of
a big buyer.

Our drug prices are now controlled by large pharmaceuticals.
A national pharmacare plan would shop around for the best
deal.

We like to brag about our superior health care system yet
only one-half of Canadians are covered by private pharmacare
system in employee based plans. Provincial plans only
provide patchwork coverage that can leave families destitute
under financial strain.

Big pharmaceutical companies like having the upper hand.
It's a good business to be in. Between 1997 and 2005 the
cost of prescribed drugs rose an average of 12 per cent
annually.

Big Pharma would like us to believe that rising prices are
justifiable because of the high cost research. Yet they
spend three times on marketing than they do on research.

It's not just advertising that drives up our drug costs.
There is also the cost of direct promotion to doctors
through sales representatives, giveaways, trips to
conferences, payment for research papers - - with no
obligation to report favourably on company products, of
course. In all, it totals a average of about $30,000 a
year per doctor according to the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives.

The Conservatives give up too easily on their plan because
they don't pay the bill. The feds regulate while the
provinces pay. The Canadian government only contributes 3%
of the total national expenditure on drugs. Meanwhile, the
government keeps drug prices high by extended patents for
drugs of questionable benefit.

It turns out that 85 per cent of the "new" drugs approved by
Health Canada are same or similar to drugs already on the
market with no therapeutic advantage.

The feds are complicit in keeping drug costs high by
allowing direct marketing of prescription drugs through
television and print ads. Direct marketing of drugs such as
Viagra not only drives the cost of prescriptions up, it
encourages consumers to diagnose themselves. A man who
diagnoses himself has a fool for a patient.

It doesn't help that the former Health Minister was involved
in the drug industry. Prime Minister Harper saw no conflict
of interest when he put Tony Clement in control of health
despite the fact that he owned 25 per cent of a
pharmaceutical company, Prudential Chem Inc. Clement was
unbothered at making decisions which potentially benefited
him. Only under pressure did he belatedly transferred his
stake in the company to the company's president, without
compensation.

Drugs should be part of our universal health care system as
they are in almost every other Western country. Other
countries shop around for the best deal for their citizens,
not for the best deal for Big Pharma.

If there is hope for Americans who now suffer under the
financial burden of an inefficient and cumbersome health
care insurance system, there is hope for Canadians. After
all, we perfected the single-payer system first.

The U.S. system is no better at providing health care than
ours is at delivering pharmacare. But do the Conservatives
care?
 

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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