As the cost of drugs continues to climb, the Canadian Drug Insurance Pooling Corporation (CDIPC) has revealed figures detailing how the organization has helped Canadians, their employers, as well as life and health insurers through its drug cost sharing mechanism.
Between 2012 and 2018, the CDIPC said that its 23-member health insurance companies and EP3 cost-sharing framework provided to employers has supported more than 45,500 Canadians and their 24,000 employers to afford expensive specialty drugs.
The organization noted that this includes over 23,000 Canadians whose treatment required drugs that cost more than $10,000 per year in 2018.
CDIPC also said in its release that the percentage of Canadians in need of high cost drugs has been growing by 3% to 5% annually. Currently, high drug cost claims make up over 39% of the total claims the CDIPC’s member insurance companies pay for.
“At a time when national pharmacare is being debated as a way to ensure Canadians have access to high cost drugs, the industry’s drug cost sharing mechanism is very much contributing to maintaining the viability and affordability of drug insurance plans for many Canadian employers,” said CDIPC executive director Dan Berty. “This means employees and their family members needing high cost drugs will usually find the drugs covered through their employer’s drug insurance plan.”
Berty added that without the industry’s EP3 cost sharing framework, things would look a lot grimmer for employers and their employers.
