The Canada Dental Care Plan will help make dental services more accessible for unionized employees who don’t currently have a dental program within their contract, says Sandeep Kakan, director of pension governance at Unifor. Kakan, who until recently was the union’s director of pension and benefits, says the new program has established a standard from which […]
After several years of development, two long-awaited national health-care initiatives are finally taking shape, raising questions about their impact to employer-sponsored benefits plans. In May, the Canadian Dental Care Plan was officially rolled out, providing dental coverage to Canadians who don’t have access to private dental insurance and whose annual net family income is less […]
The World Health Organization defines a rare disease as having a prevalence of 65 or less per 100,000 individuals. It recognizes some 5,500 rare diseases, the majority being of genetic origin and often life-threatening. Medical research has yielded significant drug development for the treatment of rare diseases, increasing life expectancy and improving quality of life. However, […]
An article outlining the implications of a single-payer universal pharmacare system was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investmnet stories of the past week: 1. Sounding Board: What plan sponsors should know about pharmacare 2. Meet the 2024 Workplace Benefits Awards judges 3. Mental-health claims by Canadians up […]
Plan sponsors worried about the expense and sustainability of their drug plan might initially embrace a pharmacare plan, hoping to shift drug costs to a new program funded by provincial and federal governments. However, this may not be the solution it seems. A single-payer universal pharmacare system might limit medication access for individuals with employer-sponsored benefits […]
An article on the federal government’s national pharmacare bill receiving approval in the House of Commons was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investment stories of the past week: 1. Pharmacare bill passes in House of Commons, heads to Senate 2. 32% of Canadian SMEs facing […]
The federal government’s pharmacare bill is headed to the Senate after passing third reading in the House of Commons. The bill was the result of careful and lengthy negotiations between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party as a key element of their political pact to prevent an early election. Read: Liberals table bill paving way […]
An article on legal challenges filed against the federal government’s hybrid work mandate for public service employees was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investment stories of the past week: 1. Unions representing federal public service workers file legal challenges against hybrid work mandate 2. Expert […]
With employees often struggling to find benefits offerings related to mental-health support or chronic conditions, demand for health-care system navigation services has increased significantly in the past few years. In May 2023, the Bank of Montreal launched a digital mental-health navigation guide, available to employees in both Canada and the U.S., that streamlines access to […]
In its 2024 budget on Tuesday, the federal government announced a new working group dedicated to encouraging increased domestic investments by Canadian institutional investors. Former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is being tasked to lead an organization that will identify priority investment opportunities in the country for the more than $3 trillion held by […]