Nurses Support National Pharmacare

The BC Nurses' Union is one of the latest signatories to a statement of consensus principles for the establishment of a national pharmacare program in Canada.

The Sept. 25 statement, issued by a diverse coalition of over 70 unions and health-care advocates, calls on the federal government to develop a national pharmacare program that, like medicare, is publicly administered, comprehensive, accessible, portable and universal.

The statement comes as the government wraps up a "national dialogue" on pharmacare through online public consultations and meetings with stakeholders across the country. Led by the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare that was announced in Budget 2018, the consultation focused on how to implement "affordable national pharmacare for Canadians and their families, employers and governments."

Signatories to the consensus statement want to ensure that national pharmacare is a seamless extension of Canada's universal health-care system. This must include substantial funding commitments to support provincial and territorial governments' participation in the plan.

"Canada is the only country in the world with a national public health-care system that does not include pharmacare," says BCNU President Christine Sorensen. "Our country's complex, patchwork system of prescription drug funding, with widely varying levels of public and private insurance coverage, means there is uneven access to prescription drugs."

Today, one in 10 Canadians can't afford to fill their prescriptions, and many people have to choose between paying for their rent and getting the medications they need.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, prescription drug expenses have skyrocketed over the last 30 years, from $2.6 billion in 1985 to $33.8 billion in 2017.

A 2017 report from the Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that a publicly administered pharmacare system would save Canadians $4.2 billion per year.

A 2015 Angus Reid poll found that 91 percent of Canadians believe our public health-care system should include a universal prescription drug plan.

"The federal government has an opportunity to be pioneers of pharmacare just as Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare, was in his day," says Sorensen. "It's is an opportunity whose time has come."