Editor,
A late-2019 Angus Reid study found that over the previous year, due to medication unaffordability, almost a quarter of Canadians decided against filling a prescription or having one renewed.
Resultantly, many low-income outpatients who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions end up back in the hospital system as a result, therefore costing far more for provincial and federal government health ministries than if the medication had been covered.
The Angus Reid study also found that about 90 per cent of Canadians — including three-quarters of Conservative Party supporters specifically (who definitely are not known for supporting publicly funded social programs) — support a national ‘pharmacare’ plan. Another 77 per cent believed this should be a high-priority matter for the federal government.
Ergo, in order for the industry to continue raking in huge profits, Canadians and their health, as both individual consumers and a taxpaying collective, must lose out big time. So, while we are envied abroad for our “universal” healthcare system, full care seemingly still comes second to the big-profit interests of industry.
It’s expensive and plain wrong when a federal government repeatedly promises Canadians much-needed universal albeit-generic-brand medication coverage only to have the pharmaceutical industry typically react with successful threats to abandon their Canada-based research and development, et cetera, if the government went ahead with the ‘pharmacare’ plan.
Such universal medication coverage would negatively affect the industry’s superfluously plentiful profits. The profits would still be great, just not as great. Meanwhile, we continue to be the world’s sole nation that has universal healthcare but no similar coverage of prescribed medication, however necessary.
Hopefully Jagmeet Singh will end up deciding to maintain the NDP’s supply-and-confidence agreement with the federal Liberals if the opportunity permits after the next election. Sadly, such minority governments are likely the closest that Canadians will ever get to fully democratic proportional representative governance.
Frank Sterle Jr., White Rock