What happened to Canada's Pharmacare plan?

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges and setbacks faced by Canada's Pharmacare plan and features guest Nikolas Barry-Shaw from the Council of Canadians.

It was long overdue, and began with a promise: It might start small, covering just a few common drugs, and expand until Canadians without benefits were no longer struggling to afford medication prescribed by doctors under our universal health care system. Less than two years later, however, the program seems set to contract instead of expand. It never got beyond the first couple of drugs, and the funding might well be squeezed to zero by the federal government. What happened here? Does Pharmacare still have a chance? And why weren't necessary drugs part of a "universal" health care system in the first place? Nikolas Barry-Shaw, a campaigner at the Council of Canadians, joins us to discuss how such a promising program became at risk of vanishing as quickly as it became reality. (We're welcoming our first sponsor to CanCon. Go RVing Canada wants to help you explore the country this summer, without leaving behind the comforts of home. If you've ever been curious about RVing, but have questions, they can help.)

People in this episode

Hosts: Jordan Heath-Rawlings, Laura Palmer, Mat Keselman

Guest: Nikolas Barry-Shaw

Topics covered

• Pharmacare
• health care
• Canada
• medication affordability
• government funding

Keywords

• Pharmacare
• Canada
• health care
• medication
• government funding
• universal health care
• affordability

Sponsors

Go RVing Canada

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Council of Canadians

Places: Canada

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