BC FORUM News - From The Advocate, Summer, 2020

Pharmacare wins unanimous support

Way back on March 13, just before the House of Commons was shut down, the NDP won unanimous support on a motion calling for action to implement a national Pharmacare program that would save Canadians billions on prescription drug costs.

NDP Health Critic Don Davies moved that the House of Commons call on the government to implement the full recommendations of the final report of the Hoskins Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare.

The motion called for “the immediate initiation of multilateral negotiations with the provinces and territories to establish a new, dedicated fiscal transfer to support universal, single-payer, public pharmacare that will be long term, predictable, fair and acceptable to provinces and territories.”

“Canada currently (has) a U.S.-style patchwork of more than 100 public and 100,000 private drug insurance plans,” said Davies.

“One in five Canadian households reports a family member who, in the past year alone, has not taken the prescribed medicine simply due to cost,” he said.