Summarize this content to 100 words Steven G Morgan, professorSchool of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada steve.morgan{at}ubc.caCanadians support it, public health demands it, now policy makers must deliver itCanada’s universal healthcare system, often referred to as Medicare, provides universal, public insurance for medically necessary physicians’ services and hospital care, including inpatient prescription drugs.1 Prescriptions filled outside hospitals are not part of this system, forcing Canadians to rely on an incomplete and uncoordinated patchwork of public and private drug plans.2 That might soon change. Canada’s federal government is debating a bill that would take the first step towards universal, public coverage of prescription drugs, legislation that has been long called for and often promised by government.3 But implementation of a “national pharmacare” system will face formidable opposition.Current system is problematicPresently, Canada’s federal government, 10 provincial governments, and three territorial governments offer more than 100 different public drug plans for population subgroups that vary across the country.4 Each of these public drug plans has its own eligibility requirements and terms of coverage.3 Collectively, federal, provincial, and territorial drug plans finance 43% of total prescription drug expenditures in Canada; voluntary private insurance, held by around two thirds of Canadian workers, finances 37%, leaving 20% to be paid out-of-pocket by uninsured and underinsured Canadians.5This patchwork system of coverage has well …
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When will Canada have national pharmacare?
