{"id":69179,"date":"2016-01-19T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=69179"},"modified":"2016-01-19T23:08:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T04:08:00","slug":"bulk-buy-drug-deal-signals-thaw-in-federal-provincial-health-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/19\/bulk-buy-drug-deal-signals-thaw-in-federal-provincial-health-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulk buy drug deal signals thaw in federal provincial health relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Medicine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

VICTORIA – The federal government joined Canadian provinces and territories Tuesday in a bulk-buying drug program that aims to lower the cost of prescription medications, a move politicians and health experts say signals a thaw in relations over the national health agenda.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Jane Philpott said drug plans administered by the federal government will unite with the provincial and territorial pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance to negotiate lower prices on brand name and generic drugs.<\/p>\n

The federal government didn’t join the alliance when it was formed five years ago.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes as the country’s health ministers gather in Vancouver this week to discuss issues like chronic diseases, high drug costs and funding formulas.<\/p>\n

Public health policy expert Michael Prince said the federal government’s decision to get involved in the bulk-buying plan adds strength to the alliance.<\/p>\n

“The federal government is the fifth or sixth of the largest health-care providers in the country,” said the University of Victoria social policy professor. “It’s a major health-care provider and player in its own right and bringing the government of Canada to the table is going to be very helpful.”<\/p>\n

Philpott said in a statement that combining the negotiating power of federal, provincial and territorial governments achieves greater savings for all publicly funded drug programs, increases access to drug-treatment options and improves consistency of pricing across Canada.<\/p>\n

Federal health plans provide drug benefits to First Nations and Inuit, the RCMP, the Canadian Forces, veterans, federal inmates and refugee protection claimants, totalling $630 million in drug-related spending in 2014.<\/p>\n

The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance has completed more than 89 negotiations on brand-name drugs and price reductions on 14 generic drugs, producing a savings of more than $490 million annually.<\/p>\n

British Columbia’s Health Minister Terry Lake said that federal government participation greatly enhances the strength and purchasing power of the alliance.<\/p>\n

“That’s what we want,” he said. “The more the merrier. They have a number of drug plans they can bring on board and increase our bargaining power significantly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VICTORIA – The federal government joined Canadian provinces and territories Tuesday in a bulk-buying drug program that aims to lower …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":62941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9230],"class_list":["post-69179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-uploads","mauthors-dirk-meissner","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}