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Pros And Cons Of Pharmacare In Canada

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Alex Bugeja G. Goshulak AP/POLS 2100 Introduction to Canadian Politics 5 June 2024 Understanding Pharmacare and its Opponents Introduction Should a government pay to keep its citizens healthy? While this question seems oversimplified, it is at the core of Canada’s increasingly relevant national debate on pharmacare. When compared to other countries that fund healthcare publicly, we are the only country in the world that funds public healthcare without also publicly financing prescription drugs, A.K.A. Pharmacare (Advisory Council 2019). It is debated among political scientists and regular Canadians alike whether it is the responsibility of the Government to fund pharmacare; while both sides of this debate have equally valid and relevant arguments, …show more content…

This perspective on pharmacare will be elaborated on through this debate paper as follows: (a) Examining why pharmacare is necessary in modern Canada; (b) Aligning healthcare with the Canada Health Act; (c) Creating a roadmap based on opposition: counterpoints and rebuttals; (d) Implementation of pharmacare: the role of government, and policy and financial requirements; (e) Conclusion. Examining Why Pharmacare is Necessary in Modern Canada It has become increasingly apparent over the past decade that low-income Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. Thus, Canada must stray away from some neoliberal tenants and implement more public programs to better meet the needs of its citizens. The unequal distribution of wealth is at the very heart of our country’s need for a national pharmacy program. For example, 9% of Canadians reported skipping doses, splitting pills and adopting other methods of not adhering to their prescription(s) because of the costs (Cortes and Smith 2022). To put this statistic into perspective, a similar number of people make up the population of the four Atlantic Provinces and Manitoba combined (StatsCanada …show more content…

This grant is known as the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) (Goshulak). Section three states that “...the primary objective of Canadian healthcare policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers (Canada Health Act 1985).” In addition, the program criteria stated in section seven states that In order [for] a province [to] qualify for a full cash contribution[...], the healthcare insurance plan of the province must, throughout the fiscal year, satisfy the criteria described in sections 8 to 12 respecting the following matters: (a) public administration; (b) comprehensiveness; (c and (e) accessibility of the data. (Canada Health Act 1985) The addition of pharmacare would ensure that both comprehensiveness and accessibility are fulfilled by removing financial barriers to medical

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