David Clement is the North American Affairs Manager with the Consumer Choice Center.

Jeremy Bray, a 30-year-old Manitoban with Type 2 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), is an awful case study of how health care bureaucracy can jeopardize the health of Canadians.

Mr. Bray made headlines across the country this year when the provincial government decided that it would not approve coverage for risdiplam, sold under the brand name Evrysdi. This is an oral SMA drug that he was taking through a compassionate free-drug program run by the manufacturer, Roche. That free supply was due to end, at an annual list cost of around $300,000.

Luckily for Jeremy, after immense political pressure from the province’s opposition Progressive Conservatives and their Leader, Obby Khan, Manitoba appears to have reversed its denial.

While that is certainly good for Mr. Bray, this case of coverage denial represents a very dark feature of Canada’s process for

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