Pharmacare worth a second look: Mercer

Liberal Senator Terry Mercer is urging the federal government to get more serious about considering the idea of establishing a national pharmacare program which provincial premiers have been calling for. "I don't think we should say no to pharmacare right away. Let's have a look at pharmacare and see what the costs are and see if we can actually get something accomplished because it's not a bad idea," said Sen. Mercer in an interview last week. At a meeting last month, provincial and territorial premiers complained that the costs of buying prescription drugs have become prohibitive and urged Ottawa to create a pharmacare. The premiers estimated that they now spend $7.6-billion a year on their own drug plans. But Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh has been down on the idea from the start because of its high expense, arguing that it would cost Ottawa between $10-billion to $13-billion. Last week, Mr. Dosanjh (Vancouver South, B.C.) flew to Toronto to tell health ministers of the 13 provinces and territories that the federal government cannot afford to pay for such an expensive. Sen. Mercer was the Liberal Party's former national director until last year when former prime minister Jean Chrétien summoned him to the Senate. He said last week that the government dismissed the idea too fast. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Sask.) also recently rejected the idea of national pharmacare. In a conference call with reporters from Mali, one of the stops on a 10-day anti-poverty trip to Africa, Mr. Goodale said that the federal government is willing to consider spending more money to improve home care and to address the issue of waiting lists but warned that financing a national drug plan would mean cuts to other healthcare programs. "It's a very, very expensive item," Mr. Goodale told reporters. "The fact of the matter is that it would crowd out everything else in health care and a lot of other things too." Prime Minister Paul Martin (LaSalle-Émard, Que.) has invited provincial and territorial leaders to a First Ministers' Meeting on Health Care to be held in Ottawa, at the Government Conference Centre, beginning Sept. 13. In a historic move, the meeting will be televised. A major item on the agenda will be the proposed pharmacare plan, though the federal government is more concerned with strengthening Canada's publicly funded, single-payer health care system, and cutting waiting times. Mr. Martin's upcoming meeting though suffered a blow last week when Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said he would only attend the first day of the talks in Ottawa. He plans to be back in his home province to speak at he Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show on Sept. 14. Marisa Etmanski, Mr. Klein's spokesperson, admitted that the premier is frustrated with the Prime Minister's reluctance to consider reforms like pharmacare. Former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, who headed the 2002 Commission on the Future of Health Care also opposes the premiers' pharmacare idea and suggested that both the federal and provincial levels of governments should share the costs involved. Meanwhile, last week's three-day Liberal Caucus meeting led to the creation of three new caucus committees. The party struck a new immigration committee chaired by Liberal MP Raymonde Folco (Laval--Les Îles, Que.), a citizens and communities committee chaired by Liberal MP Alan Tonks (York South--Weston, Ont.) and an expenditure review committee chaired by Liberal MP Marlene Catterall (Ottawa West--Nepean, Ont.). Liberal Caucus Chair Andy Savoy (Tobique--Mactaquac, N.B.) said that the new caucuses were struck because MPs expressed a lot of interest in these issues and Mr. Martin wants to give MPs a chance to better think them through for the Throne Speech. Moreover, he said the move speaks to the Prime Minister's commitment to fix the democratic deficit and give backbenchers a greater say in the decision making process. "There were issues raised within the caucus in each of these areas. We want to examine them further and the Prime Minister wants to engage MPs," said Mr. Savoy. "As the issues came up, we gauged the sense of discussion from those issues. These were the ones where there was a lot of discussion around." He added that each caucus committee will have seven members. The mandates and membership will be announced this week. Mr. Savoy declined to say what other issues were raised by the Liberal MPs to be included into the Throne Speech but said that Mr. Martin quizzed MPs on the ideas they put forward in the caucus meeting. " was very constructive. It was back and forth and Prime Minister thrives in that environment and I wanted to give him that environment. It was very much a true debate amongst MPs and the Prime Minister. It was a very robust session with a lot of back and forth." The Martin government recently created a new spending review secretariat inside the Privy Council Office which will work closely with the Cabinet Committee on Expenditure Review chaired by Revenue Minister John McCallum (Markham--Unionville, Ont.) to find $12 billion over five years. The establishment of the PCO secretariat sparked fears in the public service that this review may result in job losses for public servants. Sen. Mercer in the interview cautioned that the expenditure review should not be done at the expense of social programmes. "It's always a good idea that government runs more efficiently. I am not in favour of cutting government programs ...They are talking about finding $12-billion over five years. That's a lot of money and you cut $12-billion of this government's operating budget today, programs are going to have to be cut. Which programs are they? those programs going to affect regions, then I am against it. If they are going to affect health care, child care or poor Canadians, then I am against it. If we are going to discipline ourselves and the public service to be more efficient, then I am in favour of that. I am not in favour of cutting programs to reach a goal that someone dreamt of," he said. arana@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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Pharmacare worth a second look: Mercer

Grit's former national director says Paul Martin must establish a national drug plan

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