We are living in an unprecedented time. As an increasing number of Canadians lose their jobs, those who rely on job-linked health insurance for essential health services — like prescription drug plans and dental care — are losing those benefits too. Before this pandemic, approximately 3.5 million Canadians could not afford the medications they needed and 6 million Canadians avoided seeing a dentist due to cost.

There is little doubt that these numbers will reach new heights as COVID-19 strains businesses, leading to even more loss of jobs and workers’ benefits.

But as we are seeing an unprecedented collective effort to protect Canadians in the acute phase of this crisis, we also have an opportunity to ensure that every person living in Canada has access to the essential medications and dental care they need, regardless of employment status, to protect them against ongoing and future instability.

Canadians and policy-makers are rightly focusing their current efforts on preparing us for the wave of illness that our hospitals and health care workers will face. We must continue to defer non-urgent medical care to free up whatever capacity we can. But we cannot do so indefinitely. In the midst of COVID-19, people will still need their medications for chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis, and hypertension. Chronic dental needs will turn into urgent, while urgent turns emergent.

For those that have lost jobs and now face excruciating uncertainty, it is unconscionable that they also have to face uncertainty over whether they can afford their essential medications or emergency dental care.

No one should have to ration insulin and risk a diabetic crisis that could mean another visit to an overburdened emergency department. No one should have to put off seeking care for a worsening dental abscess, only to have a fever develop, and, again, another trip to a besieged emergency department.

Our society and our economy are going to fundamentally change due to this crisis — how we change is up to us. The federal government is introducing unprecedented income supports for laid-off workers, and provincial governments are taking vital steps to protect precarious workers, like banning sick-notes. Even some large Canadian corporations are instituting paid sick leave policies.

These are all positive moves, but we need to do more.

On prescription drugs, we have known for decades that the most equitable and economically efficient way to provide drug coverage is through a universal, public program — just like we do for doctors and hospitals. With waves of people in Canada finding themselves unemployed, now is the time to ensure that every Canadian has access to the essential medications they need.

On dental care, Canada has one of the least accessible systems in the developed world. Only 5 per cent of all spending on dental care is publicly funded, which is half the rate of the United States. We know that oral health is an essential component of overall health, and oral health care has been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk, reduce rates of pneumonia, improve diabetic blood sugar control, and even increase employment.

The time to “physical distance” and hopefully slow the wave of COVID-19 infections is now. The federal government has rightly started putting mechanisms in place to help retool auto-plants into ventilator manufacturing facilities and distilleries across the country have converted from spirit to hand sanitizer and disinfectant operations.

We are witnessing an unprecedented societal mobilization. This acute crisis will soon become a chronic one. Ensuring every Canadian, regardless of employment status, can access the prescription drugs and urgent dental care they need to weather this storm cannot be forgotten.

Now is the time for universal national drug coverage and a dental care program that reflects the wealth of Canadian society.

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