People went without essential and life-saving treatments for a full year in a medical research study that was published this month.

In an era of high research ethics, how could this have been allowed? Running a trial where some people were denied access to a C-section for a life-threatening obstetrical complication would be unimaginable. But in this case, it was easy to deny patients access to necessary treatments. We just left them in the current system.

The standard of care in Canada today is to provide people with publicly funded doctors and hospital services but leave them on their own when it comes to medicines. The result is that people who can’t afford to fill their prescriptions are everywhere.

Millions of Canadians have poor access to medicines, despite the patchwork of public and private insurance schemes. These individuals represented the control group in our study, while the group receiving an intervention got what any modern health-care system should provide — access to medicines.

We randomly assigned a group of people who struggle to afford medication to one of two groups. Either they continued under their current poor access or they received free access to essential medicines, such as insulin and treatments for HIV-AIDS.

You could probably predict the results.

Those receiving free medication took their drugs more often. Patients with high blood pressure and diabetes saw their numbers improve. And the most striking finding was a large improvement in their ability to “make ends meet” or afford basics, like food and shelter: 86 per cent in those who had access to medicines versus 33 per cent among those who did not. In other words, the cost of medicines can be the difference between being able to pay your bills or not.

In a country that prides itself on its universal health-care system, it is sad that we were able to do this study and it is appalling that many believe such research is still needed.

A typical participant in our study was a 51-year-old woman who earns around $30,000 per year. These are people who are working, contributing to our economy and paying taxes. Because medicines are excluded from our public health-care system, some cannot afford medicines regardless of how hard they work. Taxi drivers, food servers, artists, factory workers, entrepreneurs, consultants, musicians, “temp” workers and journalists can all succeed at work but fail to afford essential medicines.

This gap in our health-care system does not affect everyone equally. Women — including single mothers — are more likely to work in low paying jobs that do not provide insurance. So are people from racialized minority groups. But it is not solely an issue for some groups. It’s an issue for everyone because even middle- and upper-class Canadians are just a job loss away from losing their drug coverage.

Multiple government and academic reports have recommended bringing medicines within our cherished publicly funded health-care system. Now, we need our leaders to show some leadership. Pharmacare — bringing medicines with our publicly funded health-care system — is being discussed on the campaign trail.

If this change were easy it would have been done already. There has been and will be massive and sustained pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and the private insurance industry who oppose this change. This reality has been recognized in two separate federal government reports, including one entitled, “Pharmacare Now.”

Two parties, the Greens and the NDP, have included full implementation of pharmacare in their platforms. The Liberals have committed to the introduction of national pharmacare and included a “down payment” for it in their platform, while the Conservatives are promising to improve access to medications for Canadians with rare diseases.

So, there is a risk that people will go to bed on election night without having taken their medicines and wake up the next morning knowing that they will continue to go without.

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Or, people could wake up to change.

This election is the first opportunity Canadians have had to show their support for pharmacare inside a polling booth. Surveys indicate overwhelming support for putting medicines inside our cherished, albeit imperfect, publicly funded system. If that happens, it will put unethical research studies like ours out of business. What a gift that would be.