Posted by Michael Wonder on 15 Feb 2018
Canadians are being fooled into thinking we'll like pharmacare. We really, really won't.
15 February 2018 - The idea that a government-run drug insurance monopoly will cost less and deliver the same benefits as the current system is laughable.
Last week the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health continued its two-year deliberation on National Pharmacare, a program that would replace all private drug insurance, as well as existing federal and provincial publicly funded drug plans. That same week, the Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian Doctors for Medicare and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons held an Ottawa press conference to demand pharmacare. Patients and taxpayers should be entirely skeptical.
Pharmacare’s advocates offer two trumped-up reasons to justify this massive federal government takeover of drug insurance. First, that patented drug costs are threatening the sustainability of existing drug plans. Second, that 3.5 million Canadians are uninsured. There is no evidence for either claim.
