Posted by Michael Wonder on 07 Jun 2018
Canada trails US in patient access to rare disease therapies, CORD President says
6 June 2018 - Canada’s healthcare system is excellent for people with common ailments like diabetes or high blood pressure, but it’s “basically failing the nearly three million Canadians with rare diseases.”
So says Durhane Wong-Rieger, president and CEO of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders (CORD), a Toronto-based network representing 102 patient advocacy groups.
Canada, she notes, has the third-highest costs for medicines in the developed world after the United States and Switzerland. Unlike hospital and physician care, coverage for therapies is not universal; about 2 percent of Canada’s 36 million people have no coverage, and 10 percent have inadequate coverage.
