OTTAWA—The New Democrats are promising to take the health-care dream of Tommy Douglas one step further, pledging to support the provinces as they work toward providing universal coverage for prescription drugs.

The promise and the price tag

The NDP pledged $2.6 billion over four years — ramping up to $1.5 billion annually in fiscal 2019-20 — in new federal funding focused on universal drug coverage negotiated with and delivered by the provinces.

Another $80 million over four years would go to federal participation in the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance — a bulk-purchasing plan the provinces started building in 2010 to negotiate better prices for brand-name and generic drugs — and other initiatives such as improving drug safety.

Tommy Douglas and medicare 2.0

At a campaign event in Regina, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair read a quote from NDP founder Tommy Douglas, often referred to as the father of the Canadian public health-care system.

“Let’s not forget that the ultimate goal of medicare must be to keep people well, not just keep patching them up when they get sick,” Douglas had said as he went on to describe a vision that included a much broader continuum of care — including pharmacare — than the hospital, physician and surgical dental services insured under the Canada Health Act.

How would they get there?

There are a number of ways they could achieve that goal, but the NDP says it is leaving the details up to individual negotiations with the provinces.

The Quebec model of compulsory prescription drug insurance is one option, but other provinces will have other ideas and the NDP notes it is not a one-size-fits-all plan. The NDP is dreaming bigger than catastrophic coverage, said one NDP official, but they would not go so far as to amend the Canada Health Act to include prescription drugs.

Do the provinces want it?

In a word, yes. Provincial and territorial health ministers gathered in Toronto in June to try to figure out the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver medically necessary prescription drugs.

“A national pharmacare program is in the interest of our patients and of all Canadians,” Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins said at the time.

Steve Kent, the health minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, told reporters then the federal government had “a critical role to play”.

“This is not something, quite frankly, that provinces and territories can do on their own,” said Kent.

How much money could it save?

A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal this March concluded a national universal prescription drug plan could bring $7.3 billion in public and private spending every year.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions estimated a national drug plan would bring lower drug costs and reduced administration fees amounting to savings worth up to $11.4 billion annually.

The NDP has put forward a more conservative estimate of $3 billion in annual savings they would want to see the provinces reinvest in health care.

The party also says it would fit within the $5.4 billion over four years in new spending for health and seniors care revealed in its fiscal plan released Wednesday.

Other ideas

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Federal health minister Rona Ambrose, who is running for re-election as a Conservative in the Alberta riding of Edmonton-Spruce Grove, asked the provinces this summer to let Ottawa to participate in the bulk-purchasing plan, which the premiers expressed openness to at their July meeting in St. John’s, N.L.

A spokesman for Ambrose told The Canadian Press this summer that working with the provinces on bulk-purchasing must happen before the federal government would spend any more money in that area.

The Liberals passed a health-care policy resolution at their 2014 convention calling for funding to create a national pharmacare program, but there have been no announcements on the topic during the campaign.

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