Trade deals a threat to Medicare, pharmacare
TheStar.com – Opinion / Readers’ Letters – Re: Pharmacare for all, Editorial June 10
Jun 21 2015
Congratulations for your support of a very old policy proposal to reform a still very limited Medicare to say nothing about the health system as a whole.
It was in 1959 that a small interdepartmental committee was set up by Premier Tommy Douglas after he announced that the government was going to proceed with Medicare. I am one of two remaining members of that committee, which among other things recommended pharmacare as a vital part of the proposed program. In the end, in the final 1962 policy pharmacare remained a commitment for the future and one which was not picked up by the Lester Pearson government.
Undoubtedly the current position of Ontario and other provincial governments to discuss national drug coverage is a step forward. Presumably it is quite possible for the provinces to proceed as a group to organize for bulk purchases — perhaps via something like a multi-provincial type of crown corporation that would purchase or negotiate bulk purchases and seek the most favourable prices. It could also carry out or have carried out effective quality controls, an issue that appears to have arisen currently as part of the federal government science hiatus.
However there are existing realities that present problems in achieving this kind of agenda or realizing the expected economies estimated at some $11 billion annually.
One is the need to engage the federal government as a significant participant. Currently on the contribution side the federal government provides a mere 2 per cent of the costs of medications for veterans, First Nations and the military. But at the same time it is a prime factor in influencing the costs of drugs since “it is responsible for approving new drugs, patent protection, setting prices for new brand name drugs, and drug advertising” (CCPA Monitor, February, 2015). These policies as applied now increase the price of drugs but it is the provinces, individuals and employers that bear the burden. There are no concrete federal changes on offer.
Another is the CETA Canada-Europe trade agreement now being negotiated by the federal government with little visible objection from the provinces with the exception of Newfoundland. It is estimated that given the EU position on intellectual property regarding pharmaceuticals, a CETA agreement would increase drug costs at the level of billions — largely through the extension of the life of patent rights for the giant European and British pharmaceutical companies and by extension the denial of growth of genetic drug production.
In a contradictory fashion the provinces have not raised objections to CETA despite this kind of damaging impact. Such objections would be effective since the federal government must guarantee provincial and local government adherence to CETA.
Perhaps even more menacing is a new agreement among the many being negotiated in secrecy until revealed by Wikileaks. The current leak was an agreement called TISA, or Trade in Services Agreement. The revelation came on July 3 and followed the early March 26, 2015, leak of the TPP draft. TISA, as its name suggests, is about services and the core concept is to transfer control of public services from states to corporations, with the transfer being provided by states like Canada and other North and West States but excluding the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China economic giants but somewhat incompatible with the main thrust of neo-liberal globalization.
What does this have to do with drugs? What little we know about TISA includes health among services to be shifted to the corporate sector in a wholesale global privatization process which includes education, prisons and other public services. A bizarre aspect of TISA is its extraordinary level of secrecy — all participants are sworn to secrecy for five years even if the negotiations fail.
Those like myself who support a public, national pharmacare addition to Medicare, while working on this goal nationally, must at the same time raise the issue presented by CETA, TPP, TISA since their applications would not only overwhelm the projected savings of pharmacare but most seriously destroy Medicare and replace a democratic based state institution with the antithesis of democratic responsibility, competence and control.
Meyer Brownstone, professor emeritus, Chair Emeritus Oxfam Canada, Toronto
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Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, rights, standard of living
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