Universal pharmacare will cut costs and save lives

When it comes to prescription drug coverage, our health system has plenty in common with the United States – and that’s not a good thing

Universal pharmacare will cut costs and save lives  FROM OUR ARCHIVES Ed. note: This commentary was originally published Dec. 10, 2016. Most Canadians would agree that those who need potentially life-saving medications should have ready access to them. Yet prescription drug coverage in Canada varies widely depending on where you live, your health status, income and age. It's time for a universal pharmacare…

Sustainable pharmacare requires a business-like approach

Out of control spending on Ontario's drug plan could undermine efforts to provide coverage across Canada

Sustainable pharmacare requires a business-like approachOntario’s proposed pharmacare plan for those aged 25 and under is a welcome start that hopefully leads to universal drug coverage for all Ontarians. The case for universal coverage is overwhelming. It’s scandalous that in 2017, many Canadians die for lack of affordable access to basic drugs like insulin.  Increasingly, even those of us with private health insurance coverage face…

Forging a new deal for doctors requires a new approach

Should we move to a system like that in the U.K., where physicians are paid a salary and work to terms of a contract?

Forging a new deal for doctors requires a new approachOntario’s Health Minister Erik Hoskins is a brave man. He has attempted to wrestle a new agreement with Ontario doctors and to drive down outrageous billing – with some 500 doctors billing more than one million dollars a year. Hoskins wanted to redistribute these health dollars for improved physician care. The plan was to engage…

Canada falls woefully short in dealing with superbugs

Why aren’t governments and doctors doing more about superbugs and over-prescribing?

Canada falls woefully short in dealing with superbugsBy Colleen M. Flood and Bryan Thomas University of Ottawa In 1928, a Petri dish in Alexander Fleming’s lab was accidentally contaminated by a mould spore, leading to the discovery of penicillin and, in time, a revolution in medicine. Almost a century later, that revolution faces a menacing challenge. With the discovery of penicillin, deadly…

Health care should be modernized, not privatized

Two-tier care and extra-billing being sold to the public as strategies for saving health care

Health care should be modernized, not privatizedNational Medicare Week has just passed, buoyed with optimism as a fresh-faced government takes the reins in Ottawa – elected partly on a promise of renewed federal leadership on health care. Yet these “sunny ways” are overcast by recent developments at the provincial level that entrench and legitimize two-tier care. Saskatchewan has just enacted a…