Why Canada Needs Pharmacare

Too many Canadians can not afford the necessary drugs to live a happy productive life. This is why Canadians need a federally funded Pharmacare system. It is clear from studies that having a Pharmacare system makes drugs cheaper, promotes business, and foster a fair equal access to lifesaving drugs.

One in ten Canadians (10%) can not afford medications prescribed to them (Lin, 2012). “[Drugs] when prescribed and used appropriately.., [can] improve the quality of life,” (Morgan, et al., 2015, p. 4). The wellbeing of an employee can also affect their productivity (Kirsten, 2010).

For Pharmacare to be effective it should have the following:

• Universality: No resident is denied coverage because of age, income, or any other factor unrelated to his or her medical need for covered medicines.
• Accessibility: All residents are able to access covered medicines without financial barriers.
• Comprehensiveness: The program covers as many medicines as can be afforded and justified by available evidence concerning health and economic impacts of coverage.
• Public Administration: The organization responsible for managing the national formulary and related pricing and supply contracts is a publicly accountable not-for-profit body.
• Portability: The formulary of covered drugs is national in scope and provisions are made to ensure continuous coverage for residents who move within Canada. (Morgan, et al., 2015, p. 17)
  To do this properly it should be built on top of medicare and at least 25% funded by the federal government (Morgan, et al., 2015).

The first important point is drugs are pricey (Jogalekar, 2014), especially for rare life saving ones; A national pharmacare plan would reduce the price thanks to the nature of a scale economy (Staff, 2016; Romanow, 2002 & Boyle, 2015). Also, having the system of separate and different health care insurance for every man, woman, and child is inefficient. Having this type of system adds administrative cost, increases the man hours required to finish a task and redistributes wealth to the top one percent of income earners (津川, 2014).

Having this policy will attract business by the lessening wasted administration cost (see table one). Pharmacare is an example of a one payer health care system, the current system is an example of a multiple payer health care system. Administrative cost makes up, “5 per cent of spending... for public health insurance systems;.. administrative costs for private health insurance are on the order of about 15 per cent of spending.” Therefore even if taxes on business are raised in order to pay for a pharmacare system, the total cost for Canadians would go down to a range of 2.95 billion dollars to 10.7 billion dollars (Gagnon & Hébert, 2010, pp. 9-10). A significant amount of this cost (less than 39% (Gagnon & Hébert, 2010, p. 20) is shared by businesses. With this methodology companies would not need to buy expensive private insurance plans for their workers.

The last important point is an appeal to the heart, we as Canadians need to come together and stop the loop of poverty with in Canada; and the world at large. A national pharmacare program would help the impoverished so they may not need to choose between: a house to live in, food to eat, or medicine to keep them healthy (White , 2016, p. 1). This situation should not happen anywhere in the world let alone Canada.
If all the points stated above do not prove the relevance or importance of pharmacare; maybe these organizations listed below will:

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, CMA, Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Canadian Health Coalition, Canadian Association of Retired Persons, Canadian Doctors for Medicare,the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres, the Association of Ontario Health Centres, the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, Unifor, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the United Steelworkers, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Phoenix Centre for Families and Children, the National Council of Women Canada, The Canadian Treatment Action Council, the Council of Canadians, the Canadian AIDS Society, the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Network for Poverty Reduction, Planned Parenthood Toronto, the Human Development Council, the Child Poverty Action network, Alternatives North, and the Centre for Social Justice, all call for Pharmacare by the year 2020. (RNAO, 2016, pp. 1-2)
All these organisations call for Pharmacare by the year 2020.

In closing pharmacare is a necessary part of any modern medical system; therefore Canada needs it as a part of its system.

Works Cited
Boyle, Theresa. "National Pharmacare Program Could save $7.3 Billion: Study | Toronto
Star." Thestar.com. Toronto Star, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Gagnon, Marc-André, and Guillaume Hébert. The Economic Case for Universal Pharmacare: Costs and Benefits of Publicly Funded Drug Coverage for All Canadians. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2010. Print.
Jogalekar, Ashutosh. "Why Drugs Are Expensive: It's the Science, Stupid." Scientific American. Springer Nature, 06 Jan. 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
Kirsten, Wolf. "Making the Link between Health and Productivity at the Workplace —A
Global Perspective." Industrial Health 48 (2010): 251-55. J Stage. National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health, 16 June 2010. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
Lin, Brian. "Canadian Medical Association Journal." CMAJ News Release: Drug
Affordability Affects 1 in 10 Canadians; Female Feticide in Canada Requires Action.
Canadian Medical Association Journal, 16 Jan. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Morgen, Steve. "How Universal Pharmacare Might Just save Our Health Care System." Making Evidence Matter. University of Manitoba, Feb. 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Morgan, Steven G., PhD, Danielle Martin, MD, CCFP, MPP, Marc-André Gagnon, PhD, Barbara Mintzes, PhD, Jamie R. Daw, Msc, and Joel Lexchin, MD, MSc. "The Future Of Drug Coverage In Canada - Pharmacare 2020." The Future Of Drug Coverage In Canada - Pharmacare 2020. Pharmacare Policy Research Collaboration, 15 July 2015. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Romanow, Roy. "Pharmacare in Canada." Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada 1 (2002): 0-13. Sites.ualberta.ca. University of Alberta, 6 June 2007. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
Staff, Investopedia. "Economies Of Scale." Investopedia. Investopedia, 2016. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
Staff, RNAO. "Pharmacare." RNAO. RNAO, 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
White, Julie. "A National Public Drug Plan For All." Health Coalition. Canadian Health Coalition Coalition Canadienne De La Santé, May 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
津川,　友介. "Single-payer vs. Multi-payer Health Insurance Systems." Health Policy Buzz Blog. N.p., 10 May 2014. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
We did it with once we can do it one more time!

This is my first post, it was adapted of a report i made in school , how do you like it, let me know in the comments below.