Posts Tagged ‘pharmaceutical’

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The pandemic worsened access to medicine for close to 1 in 5 people

Wednesday, November 16th, 2022

Percentages of people reporting not having prescription insurance to cover medication cost was higher among immigrants (29%) relative to non-immigrants (17%) and among racialized persons (29%) relative to non-racialized and non-Indigenous persons (17%)… The new findings should instill added urgency in the federal government which has promised to make progress on a national universal pharmacare program

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Tackling the opioid crisis

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

… statistics point us to two solutions: First, we need to regulate, rather than criminalize, all psychoactive drugs, and second, we ought to provide a safe supply of drugs to users. Those two solutions were, respectively, the “core” and “urgent” priorities identified by an expert task force last year, but so far, Ottawa has done relatively little toward making them a reality.

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Don’t be scared into supporting privatized health care

Monday, September 12th, 2022

The privatization options will not begin to address the problems of a demoralized and depleted health care workforce and the overzealous constraints on public health care spending and will have negative consequences for both equity and efficiency. Debating private care options is a wasteful distraction.

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How will Canada expand a health-care system that’s already struggling?

Saturday, September 10th, 2022

Everyone should have access to routine dental care and vision care and necessary medications — and other things, like mental-health supports and physiotherapy… This is important on humanitarian grounds. It would also, though, optimize the primary-care system: a person who is kept out of hospital by proper dental care means one more bed available for someone who truly needs it. 

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Reforming our approach to drugs

Sunday, August 21st, 2022

… while study after study confirms that criminalization has no effect on drug usage rates, it has created a vast transnational network of organized crime… the federal government’s expert task force last year recommended an end to our century-long experiment with prohibition. As its “core priority,” the force recommended Canada “immediately develop and implement a single public health framework with specific regulations for all psychoactive substances, including currently illegal drugs as well as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.”

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Healthcare needs collaboration, not finger-pointing

Monday, July 18th, 2022

The health-care crisis is different in nature from the pandemic, but alike in urgency. As such, it is a challenge of sufficient scale and complexity to be addressed at the first ministers’ level. This is especially true when [negotiating] pharmacare and national dental care programs… Collaboration on those files and addressing the crisis must involve more than cheque-writing that pours more money into systems proving inefficient. It must involve systemic and structural reforms to help make the healthcare system more sustainable – and easily accessible.

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B.C. and Ottawa are showing leadership in fighting the scourge of drug overdoses

Tuesday, June 7th, 2022

The exemption, which is authorized by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, will decriminalize possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy. Toronto has applied for a similar exemption, and the feds ought to approve it now… there’s abundant evidence that drug prohibition has little effect on how many people use drugs but plays a significant role in making an already risky activity even riskier.

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Canadians want it, doctors want it, so let’s get pharmacare done

Thursday, May 12th, 2022

Canadians should be appalled by how much time is spent every day by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others working around the lack of real drug coverage in Canada… As stated in the petition, Philpott and Martin call for advancing the timing and scope of Canada’s plans – starting with universal, public coverage of essential medications before the end of 2022. Meanwhile, the government has promised to pass a Canada Pharmacare Act in 2023…

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We can’t wait for a national pharmacare plan

Saturday, May 7th, 2022

… five separate commissions have called for a national pharmacare program…  nine in 10 Canadians support implementation of universal, public pharmacare now… Canadians and the health-care workers who serve them desire — and deserve — a health-care system that does not abandon patients the moment they receive a prescription. The time for commissions, studies and reports must be behind us.

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Big Pharma wins in Liberals’ watered-down drug price regulations

Saturday, April 30th, 2022

A universal, single-payer, national pharmacare strategy remains elusive for Canadians, but the pharmaceutical industry continues to rake in profits while the government scales back regulatory changes on drug pricing… The Globe and Mail reported that the government is also cancelling plans from 2019 to force drug companies to disclose net prices and will instead continue to rely on publicly-listed prices. This, despite the government’s declaration that public prices do not reflect the true price tag.

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