An argument for national pharmacare is the number of older Canadians who either don’t fill prescriptions or skip doses because they’re too expensive, a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests.
“Universal access to necessary medicines is one of the measurable goals of the United Nations drive for universal health coverage in all countries,” wrote the study’s lead author Steve Morgan, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
“Like citizens of almost all other advanced economies, Canadians receive universal coverage for medically necessary hospital care and physician services. But pharmaceutical coverage in Canada is incomplete, with many patients falling through the cracks of what has been described as a ‘patchwork’ of public and private drug plans in each province and territory.”
Read: Panel calls on feds to create an ‘equitable’ and ‘cost-effective’ national pharmacare system