Canadian Politics Today

- Canadians spent $34 billion on prescription medicines in 2018
- On a per capita basis, only the United States and Switzerland spend more on medicines

Spending out of pocket, or total spending?  Does this include money the government spends on drugs through insurance programs?  I think the feds have an important role in bulk buying of drugs through negotiating lower prices with drug companies, but you don't need a national pharmacare plan to do this because we already do it.

- One in five Canadians struggle to pay for their prescription medicines. Three million don’t fill their prescriptions because they can’t afford to. One million Canadians cut spending on food and heat to be able to afford their medicine

If provinces have government drug plans available to everyone, why is this still happening?  Is it lack of knowledge that these plans even exist?  Are some provinces dropping the ball?

- Universal, single-payer public pharmacare will provide access to prescribed medicines for all Canadians, including the estimated one in five who are either uninsured or underinsured.

Nobody in this country should be under-insured.  There are public insurance plans available.  Why is this happening?  Just because you're uninsured that doesn't mean you're struggling.  You could be a wealthy business owner and not have insurance and you're doing fine paying for drugs out of pocket.  In my province you can't go broke from drug costs unless there's an expensive drug that's somehow now covered by the public plan, which is no different from a national pharmacare plan.

- Universal, single-payer public pharmacare will result in better value for money and substantial savings for governments, businesses, and individual Canadians.

Why and how?

- Once implemented, pharmacare’s stronger negotiating power, lower administrative costs, as well as other improvements will save taxpayers an estimated $5 billion annually. Savings for individual Canadians and their families will be significant and tangible. Canadian families will save, on average, $350 per year. Pharmacare will also provide businesses with much-needed relief from the high and growing cost of prescription drug insurance. The average business owner who provides drug coverage will save over $750 annually per employee.

The devil is in the details.  Yes obviously citizens and the business owner will save money because the cost will be covered by the taxpayer, which includes the business owner and the citizen.  Somebody has to pay for the drugs.

How will it mean lower admin costs?  They have to create a big government bureaucracy to administer the program, paid for by taxpayers.

- The Council recommends that Canadians and employers continue to be able to purchase private drug insurance as a form of supplementary insurance to national pharmacare.

Then what is the point?  Why would you still need a private plan?

I'm not against a universal pharmacare plan, in fact I think it's probably a good idea.  But the devil is in the details.