The pharmacare bill is coming today — here’s what you need to know – CBC

How a national drug plan would work, why experts say it’s needed and what it might cost

Feb 29, 2024

The Liberal government is expected to table its pharmacare legislation today — possibly the biggest expansion of publicly funded health care in Canada in decades.

Because Canada is the only country in the world with a universal health care system that doesn’t have universal drug coverage, the move would take Canada one step closer to parity with peer nations.

Here’s a closer look at what the pharmacare plan would cover, what it would cost, who has been calling for it and why they say it’s needed now more than ever.

Since the 1964 Hall commission report, multiple studies have recommended that Canada move to universal drug coverage.

Justice Emmett Hall’s report called for federal and provincial governments to work together to cover “the high cost of many of the new life-saving, life-sustaining and disease-preventing medicines” that Canadians were struggling to afford.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pharmacare-how-we-got-to-here-1.7128512