{"id":24914,"date":"2019-10-10T18:06:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24914"},"modified":"2019-10-10T18:07:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:07:04","slug":"candidates-discuss-pharmacare-proposals-at-all-candidates-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/candidates-discuss-pharmacare-proposals-at-all-candidates-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates discuss pharmacare proposals at all-candidates meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada has built an international reputation on the\nstrength of its public health care system, and the legacy of this system and a\nFederal election is often a chance for political parties to share their vision\nfor the future of healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This election is no exception, with several parties\noffering new and renewed proposals for a national pharmacare system, a proposal\nwhich some parties agree will save Canadians money in the long run, with others\nagreeing it will put a strain on the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates offered their visions for the Canadian\nhealthcare system at last week\u2019s all-candidates debate hosted by the Aurora\nChamber of Commerce where they were asked if they supported universal\npharmacare \u2013 that is, a plan to help Canadians receive more affordable\nprescription medicine \u2013 and, if so, how that would be paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill Liberal candidate Leah\nTaylor Roy kicked off the discussion with an unequivocal yes. While she said\nCanada is \u201cproud\u201d of its healthcare system, to have a universal healthcare\nsystem without a national pharmacare plan \u201cjust doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing her answer to the business-owners in the room,\nMs. Taylor Roy said, \u201cI am sure you very well understand the concept of return\non investment; I think this is one of those programs where the return that we\nwill get as a society, both in economic benefits as well as the overall\nwellbeing of the country, is very, very important. There should be no mother\nhaving to decide whether they can pay for their children\u2019s epi pens that they\nhave to take to school or their children\u2019s backpack and shoes. Today, that\u2019s\nthe kind of choice many families have to make and it is just not right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you have a very good national healthcare system as we\ndo, and you cannot afford to get medicines that are required, you end up going\nto the doctor more often, you end up going to the emergency room, and the\nlong-term costs of doing that are far outweighed by the cost of the pharmacare\nsystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, she said, a re-elected Liberal government would not\nimplement such a system immediately; rather it would be phased in over time,\ninvolving pharmacists and drug companies in the conversation \u201cto work to get\nour very high drug costs in Canada down and get a system in place to take care\nof all our people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newmarket-Aurora Libertarian candidate Serge Korovitsyn\noffered an equally unequivocal answer \u2013 in his case, a firm no, stating that\npeople shouldn\u2019t have to pay if others get sick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne Kelly, Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s NDP candidate, however,\nhad a very different point of view, stating a New Democrat government would\nroll out a national pharmacare plan immediately, but with a phased-in approach\nas well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would like to say that in contrast to the Liberals\nwho have said a lot of the same things I am probably going to say, they have\nbeen looking at this for quite a long time, to their credit, but have not taken\naction on the pharmacare plan as yet,\u201d she said. \u201cAs the NDP\u2019s legacy is\nhealthcare in Canada, we recognize that being a country that pays the third\nhighest cost for drugs and pharmaceuticals in the world, we need to get this in\norder. We are the only country with the universal health care program without\nprescription drug coverage for people in need \u2013 not because they\u2019re lazy, but\nbecause they actually need good health. A universal comprehensive national\npharmacare plan has benefits for everyone, including small businesses and frontline\nhealth care providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA pharmacare program is just one part of this plan but\nwe also need a dental program. We need a program to address the opioid crisis\nwe have in this country and we need to lower overall expenses. This is\nsomething business owners should understand. Purchasing power when we buy\npharmacare in bulk, it will be significant savings that will help boost small\nbusiness and economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking an opposing viewpoint on this was Andrew\nMcCaughtrie, Newmarket-Aurora candidate for the People\u2019s Party of Canada. His\nparty, he says, believes in \u201cbacking off the provinces\u201d and letting them handle\nwhat is in their own jurisdiction. This, he argued, is the case with health\ncare. His party\u2019s solution, he said, is the Federal Government giving the\nProvinces the funding for health care and then stepping back and letting them\nimplement programs as they see fit \u2013 including taking GST money directly to the\nprovinces with \u201cno strings attached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill Conservative candidate\nLeona Alleslev said she agreed looking at a national pharmacare plan was a\n\u201cvery important conversation that we need to have,\u201d she asked, \u201cWhat problem\nexactly are we trying to solve with healthcare?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c98 per cent of Canadians already have, or are eligible\nfor, private or public drug coverage. So, do we need a universal plan to\nreplace to address not only the two per cent but replace the 98 per cent who\nalready have it, at the cost of $19 billion, which is the estimate from the\nBudget Office,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Liberals have been talking about this since\n1994. Lots of people have been talking about it. Clearly it is cost\nprohibitive. What we are trying to solve and all agree on is that those people\nwho need the coverage, who don\u2019t have the coverage, yes, it is our\nresponsibility as a society to figure out how to do that. But we don\u2019t need to\ndo it by taking on 100 per cent of the responsibility as a federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Canada Health Act ensures that we have a minimum\nstandard of health care for every Canadian citizen, regardless of where they\nlive. It is the Federal Government\u2019s job to ensure we have the right standard\nand that we are ensuring that each province is delivering effectively on that\nstandard. Those are the things that are not being done that we need to do. The Conservatives\nhave promised we will increase transfers to provinces for both the social\ncredit and the health transfer by three per cent. We are going to invest in the\ninfrastructure that allows the health care system to be effective and proactive\nin MRI and CT scans for $1.5 billion. There is no question that we don\u2019t want\ncitizens to go without drug coverage, but we, the government, do not need to\nreplace 100 per cent of that drug coverage to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Bauer, Green Party candidate for Newmarket-Aurora,\nclosed out the debate, stating the Green Party\u2019s platform is fully costed and\noffers free pharmacare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem we\u2019re trying to solve is all purchases and\npeople should be able to understand this, bulk purchases of pharmaceuticals\nwill save Canadians money in the long run,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re also going to\nprovide dental care for low-income Canadians. Both of those will reduce the\ncost of benefits currently paid by businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Canada has built an international reputation on the strength of its public health care system, and the legacy of this system and a Federal election is often a chance for political parties to share their vision for the future of healthcare. This election is no exception, with several parties offering new and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6tQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-25 13:09:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}