___________________________________ Fair Drug Prices: People on the street Woman 1: We’re just going to wait until the province does something, or we suffer at the price. 50 cents here, or 10 cents they say in America. Mike Clark: That sounds like we’re getting ripped off. Vanessa Scott: Nobody likes it. Mike Clark: No, it’s not good. Man 1: Yeah, I’ve heard some of the complaints about Shoppers Drug Mart. Woman 2: Oh that’s excruciating, that’s awful. If it’s the pharmacies just making money on my back of course it’s not right. Man 2: I’m ill, so you can see I’m disabled, so I spend a lot of money on drugs. It’s not fair. I hope it changes. Woman 1: You think you’re in a good country you have proper health benefits and you should be, you know, experiencing a reasonable price for medications considering that it’s manufactured here — and you’re not. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do. ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ Fair drug prices: The right thing to do. BOARD [Fair drug prices: The right thing to do] SUPER [Deb Matthews Minister of Health and Long-Term Care] These changes are absolutely the right thing to do. Ontarians pay way too much for our drugs when we compare them to other jurisdictions. I don’t think Ontarians understand how much more than paying than people in other countries. BOARD [Enalapril (generic blood pressure medication) average price per 10mg pill: New Zealand: 2 ¢ United States: 10 ¢ Ontario: 50 ¢ ] We need to bring the price of drugs down in this province. That means we’re going to be able to expand the number of drugs that are available for people. We also need to clean up a system that has been unaccountable and has not been a transparent system. I want to be able to pay pharmacists directly for the services they provide to customers. These changes will allow us to treat the professional pharmacists as the health-care providers that they are. It’s the right thing to do. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do. ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ Fair Drug Prices How will Fair Drug Prices Help Ontario Drug Benefit Recipients? BOARD [How will fair drug prices help Ontario Drug Benefit recipients?] SUPER [Deb Matthews Minister of Health and Long-Term Care] Deb Matthews: This is the right plan for all Ontarians, including the people who get their drugs through the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan. That includes seniors, people with disabilities and people on social assistance. This reform is great for them, because we’re going to be able to add even more drugs to the formulary. Since 2006, when we began the reforms, we’ve been able to add 177 new drugs to the formulary – that’s better health care for people who get their drugs through the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan. And it’s why we’ve got groups like CARP, like Heart & Stroke Foundation, like the Canadian Cancer Society all supporting us as we make these changes. These changes are the right thing to do. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do] BOARD [ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ NUBMER 3 BOARD: How will fair drug prices help Ontarians covered under employer drug plans? BOARD: Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Minister Matthews: This is the right thing to do for all Ontarians. It’s the right thing to do for people who have their drugs covered through their employment health plans. It means those plans will have more flexibility. It means they can either lower the premiums or they can expand the services that are included in their drug benefit plan or health benefit plan. It might mean they’ll add more drugs that are accessible through the plan or they might be able to add other health services. That’s why the Ontario’s Teacher’s Insurance Plan is with us as we make these changes. They’re going to use the savings to add to the health services that are available under the plan and they’re going to increase access to plans under the plan. These changes are the right thing to do. BOARD: It’s the right thing to do. Ontario.ca/fairdrugprices ___________________________________ How will fair drug prices help Ontarians who pay out of pocket? BOARD [How will fair drug prices help Ontarians who pay out of pocket?] SUPER [Deb Matthews Minister of Health and Long-Term Care] This is the right thing to do and it’s the right thing to do for all Ontarians, including people who pay for drugs out of their own pocket — people who are not covered under another health benefit plan. This might be people who are self-employed, people who work in low paid jobs where they don’t have benefits. It means they’re going to see dramatically lower drug prices. They — depending on which drug they’re taking — will see hundreds of dollars in savings. This is the right thing to do for all Ontarians who are paying taxes and the right thing to do for people who pay for their drugs out of their pocket. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do. ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ How will pharmacists benefit from fair drug prices? BOARD [How will pharmacists benefit from fair drug prices? SUPER [Deb Matthews Minister of Health and Long-Term Care] This is the right thing to do for all Ontarians and that includes the pharmacists in Ontario. These changes will allow us to pay those front-line pharmacists for services they provide directly to customers. We know that pharmacists are very highly trained, very highly educated. We need them to put that to work to improve health-care for all Ontarians, o under these changes we’ll be able to compensate pharmacists for their services they provide to the people of Ontario. These changes are the right thing to do. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do. ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ Fair Drug Prices - Interview with Susan Eng SUPER [Susan Eng VP Advocacy, Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP)] Susan Eng: I represent CARP and we have 350,000 members across the country, two-thirds of whom live here in Ontario. Our members would be appalled to know that some $750,000,000 was being spent on allowances to pharmacies – not even to the pharmacists themselves – for non-performance of services. They simply got these amounts that were built into the price of drugs and this practice has to stop. But if instead, the money that is saved by the province cutting these, eliminating these professional allowances, if that money is instead redirected into actual advisory and professional services by the pharmacies that will be a net benefit to all of Ontario’s seniors and other Canadians. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do] BOARD [ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________ Fair Drug Prices - Rick Perciante Speech SUPER [Rick Perciante Acting CEO, Canadian Cancer Society] Rick Perciante: We’re here today for those people, here in Ontario, who are diagnosed with cancer and dealing with financial hardship issues due to their diagnosis. When someone is faced with cancer, they should not have to worry about how they’re going to pay for their cancer drugs. They need to focus on their health. The stress of learning that you have cancer is difficult for anyone to deal with. Having to decide between paying for your cancer drugs or providing for your family, is devastating to anyone. And we know as drugs become more specialized their cost continue to increase. The changes made today will allow the government to provide greater access to cancer drugs and that is good news for cancer patients and their families. The Society strongly believes that all Ontarians should have access to the cancer drug that they need without financial burden. BOARD [It’s the right thing to do] BOARD [ontario.ca/fairdrugprices] ___________________________________