National Pharmacare has been a topic of discussion in Canada for over half a century, yet we remain unique among the world’s high-income countries with universal health coverage in that we still do not include outpatient prescription drugs in our national benefit package. here is a growing sense that we will never be able to achieve the full potential of universal health coverage without national Pharmacare.
Consideration of a national Pharmacare plan now sits at the top of the Government of Canada’s agenda, with the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare due to report its findings in the spring of 2019. While the country may be on the precipice of finally providing universal coverage for prescription drugs,
conflicting signals from the federal government make the path forward uncertain. What remains clear is that there is broad agreement among experts that a single payer plan is needed to provide adequate coverage for all Canadians and to remedy the major gaps in coverage which now exist. It is also agreed that a single payer plan would lower administrative costs and, even more importantly the ability to control and reduce the cost of pharmaceutical drugs.
A majority of Canadians, healthcare providers, labour organizations and employers also agree that a national single-payer system is an idea whose time has come. Growing income inequality, decreasing access to employer sponsored plans, and the rising cost of private insurance are stark reminders that further delay will lead to poorer health outcomes for our population.
‘Charting the Path to National Pharmacare in Canada’ is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
