The Pharmacare Act, introduced by the Liberal and NDP parties, has received royal assent.
That means it’s officially a law. The federal health minister will now work with provinces to establish how the government will pay for medications.
“There’s going to be a day when Canadians look back and find it unimaginable that people who needed access to essential information didn’t have it,” Health Minister Mark Holland told reporters Friday morning. “We’re not there yet, but today is absolutely an essential step in that journey.”
One in five adults did not have insurance that would cover their medication costs, according to Statistics Canada information from 2021.
The bill was first introduced in February.
The first phase of the national pharmacare program would cover a range of contraception and diabetes medications, according to a news release from the federal government.
Part of the act requires Canada’s Drug Agency create a list of essential drugs, which the government would try and buy in bulk to reduce prices even more.
Within thirty days, the government also has to establish a national committee, which would “make recommendations on the operation and financing” of the pharmacare program, the release said.
Holland said he’s spoken to doctors who wonder why they’re even seeing some diabetes patients. The doctors said some patients can’t afford their diabetes medication, nor can they afford to take the advice that the doctors give them. Then those patients keep coming back as they get sicker and sicker, but they don’t have to, he said.
“Our hospitals are absolutely filled with people who don’t belong there, people who we could have avoided having be sick in the first place.”
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