Now it makes sense why Lobbyists and Advocacy groups are pushing for #UNIVERSALHEALTHCARE in Canada. in the last few months, there were a series of social media posts and news articles regarding universal health care, online pharmacy, digital health, virtual care and the sudden “collapsing of the health care system.” The content of the articles sounded appealing to the public, but in a deeper view, it is not the Canadians who will benefit from this program.

Statements made by the Canadian Medical Association regarding our Healthcare system:

These are the businesses that will benefit from Universal HealthCare:

1. Health Tech Firms

• If the federal government allows Cross-Jurisdictional Practice of physicians across the country using Virtual Care. Online Medical Clinics can operate legally without Provincial Regulation and Jurisprudence.

• Patient Health Information will now be freely collected across the country by private businesses, which means data collected can be used for other purposes that can advance business interests.

• This will potentially kill businesses of local medical clinics that can not compete with the logistics of well-resourced health tech firms.

2. Online Pharmacies or Internet Pharmacies

• Online pharmacy has no official definition in the Drug and Pharmacies Regulation Act. (source: Drug and Pharmacies Regulation Act, RSO 1990, c H.4 since Jan 1, 2021 current)

What is Online Pharmacy?

An online pharmacy, Internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail or shipping companies. (source: https://linguazza.com/definition/online+pharmacy)

• If drug coverage is universal across the country, prescriptions can be filled in one province and shipped to another. The Ontario College Of Pharmacists approved Cross-Jurisdictional Pharmacy Services, allowing online pharmacies to operate legally.

• Online pharmacies will operate cheaper by utilizing pharmacy technicians onsite or remote dispensing locations that do not require a pharmacist in Ontario.

• This will create unsafe and unmonitored dispensing practices prone to prescription diversion. The country is experiencing an opioid crisis, which will not help resolve this problem.

• This will create unfair business competition for smaller independent pharmacies that cannot compete with the logistics of publicly trading online pharmacies which have investors.

3. Drug Distributors

• Online pharmacies will create more business for Drug Distributors as they will have a bulk order of drugs delivered to preparation sites (this is a similar model to central fill). Since the prescriptions are being shipped directly to the patients, Drug Distributors will reduce their delivery costs as they do not need to deliver items/drugs to multiple pharmacies for the prescription to be dispensed.

What is Central Fill?

Centralized prescription processing (central fill) refers to a service one pharmacy provides to another where the central fill pharmacy processes a request from an originating pharmacy to prepare a drug order. Medications packaged by a central fill pharmacy are dispensed by the originating pharmacy pursuant to a prescription. Each participating pharmacy is required to be accredited by the Ontario College of Pharmacists.

Originating Pharmacy

The originating pharmacy is defined as the patient contact pharmacy accredited by the Ontario College of Pharmacists that uses a central fill pharmacy to prepare and package prescription orders for the purposes of dispensing and provision of patient care by the originating pharmacy.

Central fill pharmacy

The central fill pharmacy is defined as a pharmacy accredited by the Ontario College of Pharmacists acting as an agent of the originating pharmacy to prepare and package prescription orders on the originating pharmacy’s direction.

(Source: OCP website )

• Drug Distributors and Online Pharmacies can make concessions to Drug Manufacturers for lower wholesale drug prices if they make the items/drugs of the Drug Manufacturer on the Preferred List or Drug Formulary to be dispensed by the Online Pharmacies.

What is a Pharmacy Formulary?

A drug or pharmacy formulary is a list of prescription drugs that includes both generic and brand names. These are used by doctors or practitioners to identify drugs that have the greatest overall value. The formulary is maintained by an independent committee of practicing physicians and pharmacists. In simple terms, a formulary drug is a list of drugs for which your health insurer agrees to pay (at least partially) for a predefined or specified health condition or disease. While it sounds convenient to many patients, preparing this list is quite complicated. The list of drugs specified as formulary drugs goes through a long process for ensuring the right drugs are defined according to your health conditions. (source: Prescription Hope Website )

• The higher the compliance on a Pharmacy Formulary, the more financial incentives from Drug Manufacturer and Drug Distributor. This financial incentive is commonly called rebates, marketing allowances, or bonus remittances.

4. Third Party Or Private Health And Drug Insurance Company.

• Private Drug Plan will save costs if All Canadians have Universal (Government) Drug Coverage.

• By Law, if a patient has a government drug plan or insurance, it should be billed before you can bill the private insurance. Private insurance will only pay what government insurance does not cover.

• This gives more profit to insurance companies thru paid premiums with fewer expenses for private drug plans.

The lobby for Universal healthcare by health professional advocacy groups and lobbyists is not for the benefit of all Canadians. Corruption in regulatory organizations is rampant, and regulators are in conflict of interest. There is an attempt to monopolize the healthcare industry from medical clinics. These online clinics offer virtual care, online pharmacies, and drug billing platforms to private drug coverage.

How can the public trust this advocacy for Universal Healthcare? If Our Healthcare professionals can not express a professional opinion and advocate for their patient's safety. Specifically on the Covid19 vaccine-related injuries and deaths.

Is this advocacy in the public’s interest, or is it in the interests of big corporations?