It’s Time to Finally Kill the Zombies; Comment on “Universal Pharmacare in Canada”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

1 School of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

2 University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

3 Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

The movement for a national pharmacare plan in Canada is growing, but at the same time the multinational pharmaceutical companies and their supporters are critical of such a move. The three major arguments that they make are that all that is needed is to “fill in the gaps,” ie, cover those who currently are uninsured or underinsured, that private drug plans are superior to public ones because they cover a larger number of drugs and that Canada cannot afford pharmacare. This commentary examines each of these arguments and makes the case that none of them is valid and that it is time to get on with implementing pharmacare.

Keywords

References

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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 9, Issue 12
December 2020
Pages 528-530

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History

  • Receive Date: 17 November 2019
  • Revise Date: 04 January 2020
  • Accept Date: 05 January 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 December 2020

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