We recently had the chance to meet with our friends at the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, Director of Policy Sarah Hobbs and Policy Analyst Margaret Campbell. CLHIA is an organization representing life insurance and health insurance providers across Canada. CLHIA has both a regulatory function within the Life and Health Insurance industry and provides a government relations role for its members. Both Sarah and Margaret work on the Policy and Government Relations team, covering files such as pharmacare, new technologies, cybersecurity, climate change, and health policy.
As many of us can relate, CLHIA has recently shifted its focus to assist with its members’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We were happy to hear that their insurance policies have not been majorly changed due to Covid-19; for example, you can still receive travel insurance. We were also delighted to hear that there has been frequent collaboration between Governments and the private sector to overcome the challenges associated with the pandemic. We then moved on to some further discussion around healthcare and specifically pharmacare. It was interesting to hear about what the future of pharmacare might look like with both private and public coverage options.
Ms. Hobbs and Ms. Campbell were also kind enough to talk to us about their private and public sector policy work experiences, which is very valuable as we start to consider what the next steps in our career will be. We are so thankful for their time and support of the program. We are glad to have CLHIA as a sponsor and friend!