A life and health insurance association says that more Canadians are benefitting from the private insurance drug pooling systems it maintains.

Citing data for the year 2016, the Canadian Drug Insurance Pooling Corporation (CDIPC) said that over 20,500 Canadians have enjoyed drug treatments with lower costs thanks to the private insurance drug pools.

The association also added that the drug pools have benefitted more than 7,000 employers – mostly small to mid-size employers – by maintaining the affordability of drug benefit plans.

“Canadians are increasingly benefiting from the medical advances offered through the introduction of new drugs which can sometimes be very expensive,” said CDIPC executive director Dan Berty in a release. “The number of these new high-cost drug treatments [is] continuing to expand at a rapid pace. Without CDIPC’s cost-sharing approach, there is no question that a significant number of employers would have had to make changes to their drug insurance plans, potentially leaving employees and their families without access to lifesaving treatments.”

The CDIPC allows life and health insurers to voluntarily share the costs of pooling costly and recurring drug treatments. This allows fully-insured private drug plans to survive the financial impact of expensive treatments and medications.


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