What’s up with Canada?

Pharmacare

  • Canada’s New Democratic Party decided to keep their leader during a policy convention in Hamilton this weekend.

    I’m not surprised: Jagmeet Singh isn’t just likeable; he’s about to become a founding father of universal pharmacare in Canada.

    Did you know that Canada is the only country with public health care that doesn’t also have a national drug plan? And, not incidentally, did you know that Canadians pay more for prescription drugs than any country besides (you guessed it) the United States?

    The Parliamentary Budget Office (they’re non-partisan nerds) estimates that universal pharmacare would cost the Canadian government an additional $11.2 billion in the first year – but would actually save the Canadian economy $1.4 billion to start, rising to $2.2 billion per year in half a decade.

    This is because Canada already spends more than $36 billion annually on non-hospital prescription drugs – and the government already foots 46% of the bill. What footing the entire bill would do is give the federal government significantly more bargaining power to negotiate for lower drug prices.

    And aside from saving money, it would also save lives. Around 20% of Canadians have inadequate or non-existent coverage – including one in five households with a family member who is rationing their drugs, and one million Canadians who are forced to choose between medication and food.

    The NDP wants to fix that. So Singh struck a “supply and confidence” deal with prime minister Justin Trudeau in March 2022 that would keep the minority Liberal government in power until October 2025 in exchange for legislative action on key NDP policy priorities.

    Most significantly, the deal calls for “progress towards a universal national pharmacare program by passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023” followed by “tasking the National Drug Agency to develop a national formulary of essential medicines and bulk purchasing plan.”

    As you may have noticed, the end of 2023 is neigh. And to their credit, the Liberals shared a first draft of the legislation with the NDP last week. But less to their credit, Singh rejected the draft because it failed to commit to a single-payer system. He also reiterated his party-backed threat to bail on the deal if Trudeau bails on the terms.

    Singh has taken considerable shit from all sides for working with Trudeau. To the left, he’s a Liberal sellout; and to the right, he’s a Liberal stooge. But what are his options? The NDP has only 19% of the popular vote, putting them in a distant third behind Trudeau’s extremely unpopular Liberals.

    Yes, the NDP would beat the Liberals if only people born after 1980 were allowed to vote. And yes, the NDP has had some historic victories this year with electoral wins for Manitoba premier Wab Kinew and Toronto mayor Olivia Chow.

    But if an election were held tomorrow, the Conservatives would almost certainly win – perhaps by enough to form a majority government. And even if it were only a minority government, the likelihood of Pierre Poilievre striking a similarly advantageous deal with Singh is… extremely unlikely, to put it lightly.

    In contrast, the deal Singh struck with Trudeau has resulted in, among other things, a public dental care program. Yes, it’s far from universal. And yes, it’s far from perfect. But it has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of kids going to the dentist for the first time. That’s not nothing.

    And universal pharmacare? That would definitely not be nothing.

    For what it’s worth, I doubt Singh had to twist Trudeau’s arm too hard to get him on board. I imagine Trudeau would be thrilled to have such a significant social program be part of his legacy. He even ran on the promise of establishing a national drug plan in 2019.

    So, if I had to guess, I think it’s gonna happen. Yes, the NDP will have to share credit with the Liberals. And yes, Trudeau will be a founding father too. But so what? That just means universal pharmacare will have two dads… and in Canada that’s not a bad thing.

    Nor is it a bad thing in Canada for politicians from different parties to work together to solve common problems. In fact, that’s often how politics is really done – at least when it’s done really well.

    The NDP still loves Jagmeet Singh

    was published