Pharmacare

High-income countries with national health care programs all provide coverage for prescription drugs . . . all except Canada. 



It comes down to this, in Canada. People need to make choices. “Do I eat or do I pay for my meds?”. “Do I heat my home or do I get another oxygen tank?”. “Maybe I can take my heart pills every other day to make ends meet?”. 


Trudeau has been promising pharmacare since he first ran for office. Non partisan groups like Pharmacare 2020 have also been calling for a plan. The NDP finally put his feet to the fire and brought forward Bill C213 last week. The bill would have started Canada on a path toward universal pharmacare. The bill was soundly defeated. Every Liberal but 3 voted against it. Instead of saying “Thanks for doing the legwork guys - lets get this going”, the Liberals are now calling it partisan grandstanding. The bill was carefully written by lawyers to make sure it worked like our existing medicare program but the Liberals are claiming otherwise. You say “potato”, I say “potato”. They are the ones grandstanding.


If you live in Milton then yes indeed, our own MP Adam van Koeverden voted nay too.


So next time you start arguing with your elderly aunt about taking all her insulin, damn the cost, you don’t need cable TV any more - just remember to thank your PM. And your MP. 


There are too many reasons why a national pharmacare program would be good for Canadians for us to get into all of them here. You can learn more about it in our NDP Commitments to Canadians. The Liberals make all sorts of promises but are incapable of holding to them. It’s time for a government that will act.

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