Daniel,
Great news!
The Globe and Mail has come out in full support of a universal
prescription plan. In an editorial published this week, the Globe’s editors
conclude that pharmacare is the unfinished business of Medicare.
“Canada has the opportunity to do better; to improve the
average Canadian’s access to necessary medicines while lowering the bill for
businesses, taxpayers and citizens,” write the editors.
Read the first of a series on the topic linked here and copied
below: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-globe-editorial-lets-make-2019-the-year-canada-finally-gets/
Decision makers across the country read the Globe and Mail
every day. It influences politics and lawmaking.
This milestone comes at a critical moment. The Advisory
Council is currently drafting a report to Parliament on the issue.
Let’s amplify the Globe and Mail’s strong support for
universal pharmacare. Share the editorial on Twitter
and Facebook
or forward this email to your friends and family. Plus invite them to join
our campaign at www.aplanforeveryone.ca.
We’re getting closer to winning this for everyone.
Hassan Yussuff, President
Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of Canada’s unions
Globe editorial: Let’s make 2019 the year Canada finally gets
pharmacare
JANUARY 6, 2019
In 1964, after three years of study, Justice Emmett Hall, the
Progressive Conservative judge and chair of the Royal Commission on Health
Care Services, recommended that Canada create a system of universal health
insurance. Politicians picked up the ball and ran with it, and for two
generations we’ve had medicare. It’s not perfect but, compared with what came
before, it’s an overwhelming success.
Back in 1964, millions of Canadians were counting their
pennies to pay the doctor; today, all Canadians are insured. Yet, medicare
costs far less than the system in the United States, which leaves millions of
Americans uninsured or underinsured. The U.S. health-care system, the world’s
most expensive at more than 17 per cent of gross domestic product, is
two-thirds more costly than ours. If we were spending as much on health care
as our southern neighbours, it would eat up an extra $150-billion a year. And
yet the average Canadian, remarkably, lives three years longer than the
average American.
Medicare works. But the version Canada got is less ambitious
than what Justice Hall originally called for.
The “establishment radical,” as his biographer called him,
didn’t want to limit public insurance to doctors’ visits and stays in
hospitals. He believed it also had to include prescription drugs. He
suspected that pharmaceutical treatments would come to play an ever greater
role in medical care, and he was right.
That’s why it’s time for Canada to finally include
prescription drugs in medicare. It’s time to create a national pharmacare
program. And in 2019, if the political stars align, that’s just what Canada
might get.
Every major Canadian report on health care since Justice Hall
has called for a comprehensive pharmacare program. The consensus view is that
it would improve public health while simultaneously lowering drug costs. It
would do for drugs what medicare did for the rest of health care.
When it comes to getting medical treatment from a doctor or a
hospital, Canada has universal health insurance. In the United States, it’s
what the Democratic Party’s presidential aspirants are about to start
pitching to American voters, under the banner of “Medicare for All.”
But when it comes to drugs, the Canadian system is the broken
American system. If you’re hospitalized and you’re given prescription meds,
it’s free. But once you walk out of the hospital with a prescription to fill,
you may be on your own. Coverage is a mix of private insurance and
out-of-pocket spending, with the provinces and territories filling some of
the gaps with a grab bag of local programs, each unique to its jurisdiction,
for groups such as seniors and the poor.
In terms of pharmaceutical coverage, Canada in 2019 still
looks a lot like Canada circa 1964.
And that has led to two problems – the same problems
premedicare Canada suffered from, and which still afflict the U.S.
health-care system.
First problem: While most Canadians have workplace drug
insurance, part-time workers, the self-employed and the precariously employed
or unemployed usually aren’t among them. Even for those with insurance, it’s
contingent on remaining with the same employer. Government programs are
limited and selective, creating a safety net that’s filled with holes.
As a result, many Canadians on medication don’t take it as
prescribed by their physician, for reasons of cost. A recent Angus Reid
survey found that nearly one in four Canadians said that was true of someone
in their household. A 2013 study found that 10 per cent of Canadians were not
properly taking a medication because of cost – compared with just 2 per cent
in the United Kingdom, where drug coverage is part of the public health
system.
Second problem: In a largely privatized system, the government
has little ability to control costs. That’s true across the U.S. health-care
system and in Canada when it comes to meds. Canadians are the world’s
third-highest spenders on drugs, at nearly $1,100 per person in 2017. The
British, in contrast, spend barely more than half as much. Their public
system gives them the ability to negotiate better deals and put downward
pressure on drug prices.
Canada has the opportunity to do better; to improve the
average Canadian’s access to necessary medicines while lowering the bill for
businesses, taxpayers and citizens. We’ll explain how – the economics and the
politics – later this week.
Canadian
Labour Congress // Congrès du travail du Canada
2841 promenade Riverside Dr, Ottawa, ON K1V 8X7 613-521-3400 You are subscribed as // Vous êtes abonné comme : dpaquet1871@gmail.com. Unsubscribe//Désabonnement. |
mardi 8 janvier 2019
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