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By Linda Silas and Debbie Forward

June 12, 2019 could go down as a major milestone in the history of health care in Canada. But the people of Newfoundland and Labrador need the support of Premier Dwight Ball to make this so.

On that day, an advisory council of experts delivered to Canada a detailed roadmap for the implementation of a public prescription drug coverage plan for all: pharmacare.

After 20 years of advocacy, Canada’s nurses are optimistic that pharmacare for all could finally be within reach. Just beyond the horizon, we envision a future where patients receive prescriptions solely based on medical need and never their ability to pay.

Gone would be the days when nearly a million Canadians per year were forced to choose between paying for essentials – like heating and food – and their prescriptions. Gone would be the days when up to 640 Canadians died prematurely each year from one disease alone because they couldn’t afford their prescriptions. Gone would be the days when Canada’s ineffective attempts at negotiating drug prices left us shamefully paying the third highest drug prices in the world.

The built-in inefficiencies of the current patchwork system of coverage amount to literally billions in wasted health-care dollars every single year. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that pharmacare would save at least $4.2 billion health-care dollars per year in Canada. The Advisory Council put the savings at $5 billion.

In Newfoundland and Labrador alone, total public and private spending on prescription drugs reached $467 million in 2017, up from $370 million ten years earlier. Pharmacare would better control these rapidly rising costs. A recent expert report commissioned by Canada’s nurses found that in 2015 a national pharmacare program would have saved $200 million health care dollars per year in this province alone. These savings would pay for 4,000 more seniors to receive daily home care visits, 16 new community health centres, 175 additional long term care beds per year and the hiring of 575 more nurses for our hospitals. Imagine the good that could be done in our health care system by reinvesting those savings.

Despite the great leap made on June 12, a long road still lies ahead. The promise of pharmacare has been made and broken many times. Working with provincial and territorial counterparts and the federal government, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has the power to get this done.

If the provincial government chooses to be a pharmacare leader, be assured that the nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador will be there every step of the way. Together, we can take this big step forward. For the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, for the people of Canada, the time has come.

Linda Silas is an RN and long-time pharmacare champion and public health care advocate. She has also been the President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions since 2003.

Debbie Forward is an RN and the President of the Registered Nurses’ Union of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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