Health
Pharmacare won’t help Canadians with rare disorders
From the MacDonald Laurier Institute
By Nigel Rawson and John Adams
Canadians with rare disorders will be even worse off if NDP’s parliamentary blackmail works
Last month the federal NDP convention in Hamilton voted unanimously to force the Liberals to introduce a single-payer universal pharmacare program or see the current “confidence-and-supply” deal canceled. Will universal government-run pharmacare benefit Canadians with rare disorders? We fear not.
Canadians with such disorders are already disadvantaged compared with sufferers in other countries. Fewer specialized drugs are launched in Canada than in the United States and Europe. Those that are get approval for marketing about a year, on average, after they do there.
That’s not because Health Canada takes longer to review new medicines. The process takes about the same time in the three places. Rather, delayed approval is likely due to manufacturers submitting later to Health Canada because federal, provincial and territorial hostility towards the industry has made our biopharmaceutical market less attractive.
Approval doesn’t mean government drug plans will pay for a drug, however. Further government-created barriers impact all Canadians, but particularly those with rare disorders who want access to novel drugs for their unmet or poorly met health needs. As a consequence, what gets listed in government drug plans varies widely, leading to a postal code lottery.
In a set of articles published over the summer by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, we discuss the several obstacles patients and their families face as they try to gain access to new or expensive innovative therapies. They include: the lack of federal incentives for developers to submit new medicines to Health Canada; health technology assessment that is neither accountable, independent nor transparent and makes recommendations about which drugs to cover in public drug plans to governments; and price negotiations between government drug plans and manufacturers.
Even when drug developers clear these government-created barriers, public drug plans are under no obligation to add the approved medicines to their benefit lists. Too often governments focus only on drug costs and ignore the broader benefits effective drugs can bring, not only to the health and well-being of patients and their families, but also to other parts of the health system, to the economy and to society at large. If a new drug reduces doctor or emergency visits or hospitalizations or helps a person get back to work, those benefits typically are ignored by our drug assessment system.
The federal government made matters worse over the past six years by planning to drastically reduce drug prices by regulatory order, not negotiation. This caused considerable uncertainty among developers, resulting in even fewer new drugs being submitted for marketing approval here than in the U.S. and EU.
Proponents plainly want a lowest-common-denominator government-run public plan that would crowd out private plans, which over two-thirds of Canadians currently rely on for drug access.
Despite the federal government committing $1.5 billion over three years to “increase access to, and affordability of, effective drugs for rare diseases to improve the health of patients across Canada,” its initiative is not comprehensive. So far, Canada has neither a government-endorsed national rare disorder strategy nor an Orphan Drug Act providing incentives to developers to launch orphan medicines in Canada. Most other developed countries have both.
Patients’ organizations have stepped in where governments have failed to act and proposed a Canadian strategy that would include incentives and funding to encourage developers to launch drugs in this country and cut through the barriers we have described to provide timely access to the many innovative treatments on the research horizon. For example, access to breakthrough drugs could be allowed as soon as Health Canada says they are safe and effective, even as other administrative boxes are checked and prices negotiated. Other countries use this approach.
Canadians afflicted with any of the 11,000 or so known rare disorders have significant unmet needs. Fewer than five per cent have any treatment beyond symptom relief or palliative care. The last thing these people need is for governments to ration innovative drugs even more than they already do or to force even deeper price cuts from drug developers in order to pay for universal pharmacare that covers only basic medicines.
Canadians with rare disorders almost certainly will be even worse off if the NDP’s parliamentary blackmail works.
Nigel Rawson is an affiliate scholar with the Canadian Health Policy Institute and a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, as is John Adams, co-founder and CEO of Canadian PKU and Allied Disorders Inc.
Addictions
Ontario to restrict Canadian government’s supervised drug sites, shift focus to helping addicts
From LifeSiteNews
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government tabled the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act that will place into law specific bans on where such drug consumption sites are located.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is making good on a promise to close so-called drug “supervision” sites in his province and says his government will focus on helping addicts get better instead of giving them free drugs.
Ford’s Progressive Conservative government on Monday tabled the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act that will place into law specific bans on where such drug consumption sites are located.
Specifically, the new bill will ban “supervised” drug consumption sites from being close to schools or childcare centers. Ten sites will close for now, including five in Toronto.
The new law would prohibit the “establishment and operation of a supervised consumption site at a location that is less than 200 meters from certain types of schools, private schools, childcare centers, Early child and family centers and such other premises as may be prescribed by the regulations.”
It would also in effect ban municipalities and local boards from applying for an “exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada) for the purpose of decriminalizing the personal possession of a controlled substance or precursor.”
Lastly, the new law would put strict “limits” on the power municipalities and local boards have concerning “applications respecting supervised consumption sites and safer supply services.”
“Municipalities and local boards may only make such applications or support such applications if they have obtained the approval of the provincial Minister of Health,” the bill reads.
The new bill is part of a larger omnibus bill that makes changes relating to sex offenders as well as auto theft, which has exploded in the province in recent months.
In September, Ford had called the federal government’s lax drug policies tantamount to being the “biggest drug dealer in the entire country” and had vowed to act.
‘No’ new drug sites in Ontario, vows Health Minister
In speaking about the new bill, Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said the Ford government does not plan to allow municipal requests to the government regarding supervised consumption sites.
“Municipalities and organizations like public health units have to first come to the province because we don’t want them bypassing and getting any federal approval for something that we vehemently disagree with,” Jones told the media on Monday.
She also clarified that “there will be no further safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government.”
Ontario will instead create 19 new intensive addiction recovery to help those addicted to deadly drugs.
Alberta and other provinces have had success helping addicts instead of giving them free drugs.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, deaths related to opioid and other drug overdoses in Alberta fell to their lowest levels in years after the Conservative government began to focus on helping addicts via a recovery-based approach instead of the Liberal-minded, so-called “safe-supply” method.
Despite public backlash with respect to supervised drug consumption sites, Health Canada recently approved 16 more drug consumption sites in Ontario. Ford mentioned in the press conference that each day he gets “endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools and the daycares,” calling the situation “unacceptable.”
The Liberals claim their “safer supply” program is good because it is “providing prescribed medications as a safer alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply to people who are at high risk of overdose.”
However, studies have shown that these programs often lead an excess of deaths from overdose in areas where they are allowed.
While many of the government’s lax drug policies continue, they have been forced to backpedal on some of their most extreme actions.
After the federal government allowed British Columbia to decriminalize the possession of hard drugs including heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, meth and MDMA beginning January 1, 2023, reports of overdoses and chaos began skyrocketing, leading the province to request that Trudeau re-criminalize drugs in public spaces.
A week later, the federal government relented and accepted British Columbia’s request.
Nurse practitioners expand primary care access |
The Alberta government’s Nurse Practitioner Primary Care program is showing early signs of success, with 33 nurse practitioners already practising independently in communities across the province.
Alberta’s government is committed to strengthening Alberta’s primary health care system, recognizing that innovative approaches are essential to improving access. To further this commitment, the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program was launched in April, allowing nurse practitioners to practise comprehensive patient care autonomously, either by operating their own practices or working independently within existing primary care settings.
Since being announced, the program has garnered a promising response. A total of 67 applications have been submitted, with 56 approved. Of those, 33 nurse practitioners are now practising autonomously in communities throughout Alberta, including in rural locations such as Beaverlodge, Coaldale, Cold Lake, Consort, Morley, Picture Butte, Three Hills, Two Hills, Vegreville and Vermilion.
“I am thrilled about the interest in this program, as nurse practitioners are a key part of the solution to provide Albertans with greater access to the primary health care services they need.”
To participate in the program, nurse practitioners are required to commit to providing a set number of hours of medically necessary primary care services, maintain a panel size of at least 900 patients, offer after-hours access on weekends, evenings or holidays, and accept walk-in appointments until a panel size reaches 900 patients.
With 33 nurse practitioners practising independently, about 30,000 more Albertans will have access to the primary health care they need. Once the remaining 23 approved applicants begin practising, primary health care access will expand to almost 21,000 more Albertans.
“Enabling nurse practitioners to practise independently is great news for rural Alberta. This is one more way our government is ensuring communities will have access to the care they need, closer to home.”
“Nurse practitioners are highly skilled health care professionals and an invaluable part of our health care system. The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program is the right step to ensuring all Albertans can receive care where and when they need it.”
“The NPAA wishes to thank the Alberta government for recognizing the vital role NPs play in the health care system. Nurse practitioners have long advocated to operate their own practices and are ready to meet the growing health care needs of Albertans. This initiative will ensure that more people receive the timely and comprehensive care they deserve.”
The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care program not only expands access to primary care services across the province but also enables nurse practitioners to practise to their full scope, providing another vital access point for Albertans to receive timely, high-quality care when and where they need it most.
Quick facts
- Through the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program, nurse practitioners receive about 80 per cent of the compensation that fee-for-service family physicians earn for providing comprehensive primary care.
- Compensation for nurse practitioners is determined based on panel size (the number of patients under their care) and the number of patient care hours provided.
- Nurse practitioners have completed graduate studies and are regulated by the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta.
- For the second consecutive year, a record number of registrants renewed their permits with the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) to continue practising nursing in Alberta.
- There were more than 44,798 registrants and a 15 per cent increase in nurse practitioners.
- Data from the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program show:
- Nine applicants plan to work on First Nations reserves or Metis Settlements.
- Parts of the province where nurse practitioners are practising: Calgary (12), Edmonton (five), central (six), north (three) and south (seven).
- Participating nurse practitioners who practise in eligible communities for the Rural, Remote and Northern Program will be provided funding as an incentive to practise in rural or remote areas.
- Participating nurse practitioners are also eligible for the Panel Management Support Program, which helps offset costs for physicians and nurse practitioners to provide comprehensive care as their patient panels grow.
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