EDMONTON — Today the Final Report of the National Pharmacare Committee of Experts was tabled in Parliament. The committee was struck by the federal government in November 2024 as mandated by BIll C-64: An Act Respecting Pharmacare, and was tasked with making recommendations for the government’s implementation of the next stages of the national public drug plan.
Friends of Medicare's executive director Chris Gallaway made the following statement:
The recommendations made today by the National Pharmacare Committee of Experts are heartening. They reflect what health care advocates and experts have long called for: universal, single-payer, publicly administered Pharmacare for all.
This report builds on decades of research confirming that universal Pharmacare would result in billions of dollars in cost savings, bolster our health care systems, and most importantly: prevent avoidable hospitalizations or premature deaths caused by cost-barriers preventing people from taking their medications as prescribed. And it offers a comprehensive framework to get us there.
At a moment when Albertans are increasingly being met with barriers to accessing the health care they need in our overburdened health care system, and while the universality of our Medicare system is being eroded by costly, reckless privatization experiments that would see people increasingly paying out-of-pocket for necessary health care services, this long-overdue expansion of our public health care system to include coverage for prescription medications has never been more needed.
We sincerely hope that the federal government will act urgently to adopt their expert committee’s recommendations so that all Canadians will benefit from this crucial program as soon as possible. This includes getting back to signing deals with provinces and ensuring the necessary funding for implementing the first stage of this vital national program. Albertans deserve Pharmacare and can’t afford any more delays.
Friends of Medicare encourages Albertans to continue urging their federal and provincial representatives to get to the table and negotiate a deal to ensure universal, single-payer Pharmacare for Alberta.
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