HuffPost Canada closed in 2021 and this site is maintained as an online
archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our
FAQ or contact
support@huffpost.com.
pharmaceuticals
Americans are heading over the border to buy pharmaceuticals at a lower cost.
Donald Trump's solution to soaring American drug prices is to have other countries, such as Canada, raise their prices.
Canadians pay some of the world's highest prescription drug prices, said the U.S. senator.
What is needed across Canada now is a legal regime that has real consequences for pharmaceutical companies.
Canadian negotiators must be ready to deflect the tired rhetoric of U.S. trade negotiators and the pharmaceutical industry lobby.
Counterfeit drugs are one of the greatest threats to patient safety and the pharmaceutical industry. Smart packaging is capable of addressing the issue.
Ontario has been the site of dueling pharmacare proposals and Canadians are the victors. At the end of April, the opposition NDP promised universal drug coverage for a list of essential medicines. Not to be outdone, the ruling Liberal party announced universal coverage for all drugs on the provincial formulary for youth under 25 years of age. Most health policy experts praised both proposals, myself included.
Canada is an outlier for not having a universal program for prescription drugs for children and for allowing wide inter-provincial variation in how public drug plans serve children. This means that many families can't afford to pay for the essential medicines that their children need to get healthy, stay healthy and grow up healthy.
A recent conference in Toronto addressed whether Australia has anything to teach Canada about how Canadian medicare might evolve. There are a number of areas where Australia's experience might prove helpful. The first is the public funding of pharmaceuticals.
Several national commissions on Canada's health care system have recommended adding prescription drugs to our publicly funded universal medicare system. No federal government has ever acted on those recommendations. Not yet, anyhow. By creating 'pharmacare-junior,' Premier Wynne and Minister Hoskins are in essence calling on the federal government to help finish the job and create a pharmacare program for all Canadians of all ages.
