Open letter to the federal government: establish a public pharmacare program September 27th, 2023 The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance The Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Freeland, and Minister Holland, We are writing on behalf of our 180,000 su. [...] We are pleased to hear that your government will soon introduce a Canada Pharmacare Act, and we urge you to establish a pharmacare program that is universal, public, and comprehensive, rooted in the same principles as Canadian medicare. [...] Public, single-payer pharmacare will allow us to leverage the bargaining power of all Canadians to secure lower costs for drugs across the board. [...] Our current fragmented system, with dozens of provin- cial drug plans and tens of thousands of private insurers, allows pharmaceutical companies to charge significantly more for the same drugs in Canada than they do in countries that have single-payer phar- macare systems.2 1 Six in ten Canadians have some kind of drug coverage but still cannot afford to fill their prescriptions because of high ou. [...] Here are just two of the hun- dreds of stories we’ve heard: “In my housing co-op, I constantly hear stories of individuals who must forego medication in order the meet the demand of rising food costs.
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