Waiting for reimbursement of new medicines in Canada: it's time for a rethink

Available evidence indicates that patients who have private sector drug insurance are immediately covered for all new medically necessary drugs certified by Health Canada, with few exceptions. The experience for patients who are dependent on public drug programmes is much worse. Evidence indicates that, on average across the provinces, far less than half of the drugs certified by Health Canada are finally approved by the provinces for public reimbursement. Publicly insured patients also wait up to 1 year longer than privately insured patients to get insurance coverage for new drugs. Evidence also shows that public drug coverage varies widely across provinces.