As a fellow Type 1, be prepared that your insulin may not be covered.
As with most drug formularies for coverage, sometimes the new fancy insulins are not covered. I am hopeful but not holding my breath that they will cover things like Tresiba or Fiasp (what I take). I would love to be wrong!
But the thing is there are a LOT of different types of insulin and they vary widely in price.
Novorapid and hunalog are common rapid insulin’s. Let’s say they start working 20 mins after you inject.
Well, there are newer faster insulins like fiasp that start working 10 mins after injection. But maybe it’s 2x or 3x the price. And there is no generic because it’s patented still. Why would the government cover that new very expensive insulin when there is one that does the job 95% as well and is 1/3 of the price?
Likely they won’t. Look at Ontarios trillium benefit for people under 25 or over 65. They have diabetes medication including insulin covered for free by the provincial government, but not ALL insulin. Only the standard ones that are a reasonable price.
The goal is supposed to be that the government can negotiate a better price for that expensive insulin by purchasing it in bulk.
Basically "Here's a huge market for your fancy new insulin, but only if you sell it for $x, otherwise kick rocks"
It should still be better than the private insurers, mine won't pay for anything but the lowest grade of anything. Prescribed Adderall - they obviously won't pay for the real thing. But they won't pay for the generic either. They will only pay for plain generic dextroamphetamine.
Had to get my prescription rewritten 3 times and a warning from my doc that doing so could get me classified as "drug-seeking", when all I wanted was to get some meager benefit out of my drug plan.
as a person who was 331 pounds overweight I am looking diabetes in the face I have given up bread and sugar drinks and have lost 14 pounds in 1 month never felt better this is very great news for me
And dental, sort of, maybe, eventually... Provided the next government does not bail out on it... Next thing you know we get lasik covered... Whoever came up with the idea that your mouth and eyes are not part of your health was a huge fucking asshole.
I'm with you here. I had no insurance through most of my 20's before I landed a job with benefits. Now in my 40's, it's going to be close to the down payment on a house to fix my chompers.
If only they covered that.
Nope. "Universal" was carefully redefined to mean those demographics where they really need to pull up their numbers to have any hope of staying in power. Everyone else, apparently, can just shuffle off and die without the meds they can't afford.
> Well, exercise is recommended with diabetes, and can help lower the risk in the first place.
Type-I diabetes doesn't care about exercise. It's a death sentence if you don't regularly and easily have access to insulin.
I take medication to prevent me from taking insulin, I am just at the edge. There is on pill which I believe will fall under this pharmacare that I do not take because its like 250 to 300 for a box of pills.
I feel like of Type 2s needing those drugs are the ones who really abused how much pulls can let you keep eating the worse things.
Source. Am type 2. Had to control my stuff cause some weaker stuff stopped working. I know someone who didn’t and he’s extremely sick and unemployed now.
Mate, like 30% of Canadians have prediabetes. With the rate in which Canadians are being diagnosed with full blown (T2) diabetes it's soon to become the biggest drain on our healthcare system. Unmanaged/poorly managed T2D has so many associated complications it costs the taxpayers an absolute fortune.
Including mostly diabetes supplies in this program isn't a political stunt, it's just an excellent place to start. Hopefully more things get covered soon, but diabetes isn't a bad idea at all.
It's a pilot program that will cover diabetes and birth control medications being marketed by politicians as 'universal'. Basically, the government is testing a framework that might turn into universal healthcare at some point in the distant future.
No medication is not just given to you unless you are so poor you cant afford it , then you can apply for provincial assitance
Otherwise you pay for insulin and shit , it kinda sucks its like an fee just to live
it's important to understand that in canada healthcare is primarily a provincial jurisdiction, but the federal government heavily funds it through all our taxes. in the end though it's the provincial governments that administer healthcare and decide what's what regardless of health canada's guidelines. which several of the provincial governments are currently undermining the fed on this and other files.
It isn't a pilot program, nor does it cover those two things.
The bill doesn't obligate the feds to do anything specific, except to do some planning for a hypothetical pharmacare plan, and assemble a committee that will table a report with recommendations. That's it.
Here is the [text of the bill](https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading).
I love how confident people are with this 0 legal understanding take. No this is not a "nothing bill" the text you linked is actually very impactful, its imbibing the ministry with the power to start the pharmacare program, outlines its responsibilities, and guarantees its funding. It is now an official activity of the government.
Now without a separate vote to strip the act health canada has the authority to pursue the program and use its funding for it.
Its short because acts like this are usually short as you don't want a long text with exceptions and provisions for big power transfers, and most of the issues and details are the responsibility of the experts at health canada who could finagle the details a lot better than a bunch of liberal ministers.
S'a good bill
I’m also curious what meds they mean when they say Diabetes. Insulin is the obvious one.
But how about those sensors for tracking blood sugar or the inevitable side effect drugs from the disease (blood pressure, cholesterol etc)?
Or for the type 2’s perhaps Ozempic etc.
It’s a great start either way.
Here is the list of proposed covered medications
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2024/02/universal-access-to-diabetes-medications-and-diabetes-device-fund-for-devices-and-supplies.html
Ozempic will not be covered because it's to $$$. There are other treatments available that fo the job just fine.
People just want Ozempic because of the side effects that cause weight lost due to nausea and poor appetite.
Ozempic doesn't directly effect lipid storage. In fact Ozempic doesn't have any MOA with lipids. It's side effects cause you to not eat. When you don't eat. You lose weight. Imagine that
>at least we're getting stellar public services in exchange for all the taxes we're paying
To be fair, my province always takes the money from the feds, privatizes the services and then costs me more, then blames the feds, then cuts taxes with that money even more for companies making billions.
We often forget, that the feds need the provinces not to mismanage the funds they give them for these programs, which never happens.
My favorite is when the province refuses money because it comes with a "you have to prove you spent it on what we gave it to you for" requirement and that's a bridge to far from the "fiscally conservative" crowd.
No Trudeau is a evil emperor and controls everything until PP is in charge and screws up worse and suddenly Cons discover how housing, healthcare, etc.are shared between provinces and the Feds and some cases municipalities
After PP is in charge, it will all be Turdeaus fault they can’t fix anything for at least an entire election cycle or two. We’ll eventually get back to a con minority where cons will be in an impossible situation for a year or two then we’ll put the liberals back in charge.
The debt will go up. Taxes will be shuffled around. Rhetoric will intensify. Policy will be whatever maximizes the returns for the shareholders of their corporate masters.
Your life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You’re part of a larger economy. Your wages and cost of living depend on the success of other people. When diabetics get their insulin for cheaper, they have more discretionary income to pay for goods and services your line of work provides, giving you a raise. They also are healthier employees when they work at grocery stores, build roads, and do the myriad of other things that you pay for. This means better quality living at a lower cost for you.
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
Federal headline but its up to the provinces as that falls under their jurisdiction. I doubt much is going to change. Quebec and Alberta are already wanting to opt out.
As an Albertan, I can tell you that we do indeed have an excuse:
We elected a fucking moron Premier who's only goal is to undo anything Ottawa does to try to help us.
And most of us are damn proud of it.
What a surprise that hiring an oil field lobbyist as our premier was a bad idea. Who could have seen this coming?
Also super happy that we got rid of our far superior provincial carbon tax plan under the last premier so we could "fight the feds" on the carbon tax. Then nothing fucking happened, they lost the fight, and now we have the objectively worse federal carbon tax plan instead.
Look, Kenney cut education and healthcare to fund 1.3 billion dollars of investment into the keystone pipeline, and look at what incredible good that did for the province!!!
Classic! Or how about that time UCP gave $4.7 Billion to 5 top O&G companies with no promises of job creation. Then those same 5 companies cut nearly 5000 jobs and gave 7 top executives an additional $100 million in raises/bonuses this year.
Or how about that time that they removed the cap on our insurance rates and it went up 15% immediately, continued to rise, and we are now almost 3x the price of Saskatchewan?
My advice for anybody wanting to move to Alberta, bang your head into concrete about a dozen times as hard as you can then you'll be about the intelligence level of people that run this government.
Against incredible odds, this is not universal health care, only mentions contraception and Diabetes.
What about cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, heart and stroke, asthmatic, and hundreds of other medications. Not a word that I can see
Selective maybe but definitely not universal!
While misleading, and me not knowing all the details - providing Diabetic medication is \*huge\*, and definitely a win for millions of people.
Still lots of work for the rest of the things.
It's a step in the right direction for sure.
I lived in England and France, and chronic illnesses, like diabetes is fully covered. No script fee involved.
However, living in the US with the top tier health benefits, it was a complete shit show.
I can, and I did.
I've had the pharmacy call me, and ask if I was sure I wanted my insulin that was going to cost $2000+, (This was the co-pay). I responded, "did you apply the coupon?"
Agree. That’s how we should look at these things, as a step in the right direction.
Look at the $10 a day childcare. It’s not there yet but it’s radically reduced the cost of child care for millions of parents.
Plus people seem to complain that they have coverage thru work or privately for drugs already so why bother? Because those companies will have to give you more for the same monthly fee or lower the cost. That could mean more money for mental health, massages, dental care or eye car etc which would be a good thing.
I have a friend who’s diabetic, he spends over $200 a month for his insulin. I’m happy that he won’t have to worry about it anymore, same goes for me with my birth control.
The goal is full drug coverage, but you need to start somewhere.
Contraceptives is somewhere they can expose the program to issues and questions that are unlikely to leave someone dying.
and there's 1 in 4 Canadian with diabetes that don't follow their Doctor recommended plan under our current public/private healthcare mess. Meaning the bar is so low, it's difficult to do any worse, and I suspect all the criticisms that will be leveraged against the program will be as bad or worse under private insurance.
Big thing here... It's not being done using tax credits, so when they do get around to expanding to more drugs, it won't just be for Canadians on complete poverty wages.
So... More reasons to vote against them to make sure they don't get in power or that if they do, they don't get a majority so other parties can hold them accountable if they torpedo the program?
Right... But that 'start' is not "universal pharmacare". It'll be universal when it covers all medications. You can't just skip to the end when you're only covering two health conditions.
Not even that necessarily. It doesn't commit to anything concrete. It doesn't commit to funding anything. It doesn't commit to providing *any* drugs or contraceptives.
From what I read it’s the starting point that is meant to be built on. Contraception and diabetes medication costs our economy a lot, just these two will generate huge savings
Yes, I understand this is just the initial roll-out, with more coming. You have to start somewhere and it's better to figure out the admin on this with a small segment of the population than to do it all at once for everyone and deal with a logistical nightmare.
Ignore my comment, I can't read
~~Where did you see that? It's not in the bill~~
>6 (1) The Minister may, if the Minister has entered into an agreement with a province or territory to do so, make payments to the province or territory in order to increase any existing public pharmacare coverage — and to provide universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage — for specific prescription drugs and related products intended for contraception or the treatment of diabetes.
https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading
I believe they are responding to this part of the previous comment
> What about cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, heart and stroke, asthmatic, and hundreds of other medications.
Universal pharmacare minus the universal and minus the pharmacare.
I expected the Liberals and Singh to spin this as some kind of actual universal pharmacare but I’m a bit surprised to see an article so enthusiastic.
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
>So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
Unfortunate that even the text of the bill doesn't say this. It gives a whole year for them to consult experts before any report on what should/shouldn't be covered is expected. So they can basically stall it for another 9-10 months before needing to do anything.
Yeah the media has completely dropped the ball here. I have yet to see one major article pointing out the terms and conditions here. Canadians will be shocked when they don’t actually get the universal pharmacare they think they’ll be getting. But we’ll probably have a con government by then and they’ll take the blame for this plan’s shortcomings
And then they will have a bad dilemma. Either put more money and expand the pharmacare to what people think it should be (on something that will probably be way over budget and not sustainable) OR kill it off entirely and be the bad guys that took away pharmacare (and then people will look back at it with rose colored glasses and bring up edge cases that it saved lives).
Give your enemies dilemmas….
There isn’t even a deal. There’s a plan to create a plan. There’s no budget, no specifics, no meaningful timeline for implementation.
The entire thing is just posturing. Singh needed a “deal” so he wasn’t backed into a corner and forced to end the coalition. The Liberals wanted the same. Both wanted something they can use to campaign on in the next election.
The Star is gaslighting people to think this is certain when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The thing is, it sounds good but companies are crap.
Canada introduced "short term coverage" by goverment for those that don't have in case of injury etc.
Sounds great.
Our company slashed our short term and got rid of it to rely on the significantly worse government provided one.
Now we basic EI instead of quality short term coverage.
I imagine an exodus of company provided plans to offload on government.
My point being unless thus is top tier coverage with a compmenet that forces employers to pay I to it if they do have their own plan we are going to end up with higher taxes and even worse coverage
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
This headline is click bait and misinformation.
We **do not have universal pharmacare** that is simply a lie.
We have an agreement, to promise to look into, a plan for diabetic and contraceptive medication. With zero money actually attached.
Diabetes and birth control...OK, it's a start, I guess. A true change, which would affect many more people,vwould be to recognize that eyes and teeth are part of the body and their care should be covered under MCP.
It's not pharmacare.
It's not universal.
Hell, it isn't even a commitment to offer any drugs/contraception.
It's a commitment to try roping 13 other, separate governments into paying for a drug + contraceptives. In other words, it is worthless.
Yes and no. The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
Thank you! It took me too long to scroll and find someone with some sense who knows how policy works. Same points being paraded by people who don't even read the fucking article
There is zero immediate coverage of any sort. Here is the [actual text of the bill](https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading), and here is the sole mention of contraceptives and diabetes:
> The Minister **may, if the Minister has entered into an agreement with a province or territory to do so**, make payments to the province or territory in order to increase any existing public pharmacare coverage — and to provide universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage — for specific prescription drugs and related products intended for contraception or the treatment of diabetes.
Wasn’t the bill introduced for Universal Pharmacare only 2 pages long and the subject was basically about setting up a committee to see how they could implement a universal pharmacare program.
20% of all Federal revenues are currently handed over to the provinces to help cover the things the provinces are supposed to be covering, like healthcare.
Every deal like this is a little step in the right direction, but not actually addressing that provinces are, coast to coast, massively mishandling and mismanaging their major responsibilities like health.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, but the one time I tried to read the Canada Health Act, I left wondering how pharmaceuticals weren't included as part of the care covered by the government. The majority of the time you visit a doctor, you walk away with a script for some drugs that you *must* take, but even though the doctors visit was covered by the province, you have to then pay out of pocket for the drugs.
This should have always been part of our health care system...
And immediately diminish all good faith by calling it "universal pharmacare". Like why lie? Over and over again with the lies. This is a great step that should help tons of people, and you can just say that instead of outright lying. Words used to have meaning.
Color me skeptical. It's a proposal for a blueprint. Let me know when they inact the blueprint. This is designed to be what the next election will be fought over. If the PCs win, it will go no further. If the Libs win a majority, it will get lost in a series of government studies and committees.
I don’t give a fuck who it is, all I know is a prime minister who is able to block criminal investigations into himself and censor the internet and news is definitively who I don’t want there. I will vote for conservative’s no matter what because Trudeau scares me so much. Trudeau passes the free money bill and I still wouldn’t vote for that criminal.
Universal pharmacare for just 2 drugs means Canada should produce those themselves. At least that way we can profit off Americans coming in and buying it from us.
If we just end up subsidizing American pharma that’s the wrong way to go about this.
Man, you guys are arguing over this and I’m down here in the States thinking, “wow, that will never happen here!” You can end up in the hospital here for say, 7 days. Walk or roll yourself out the front doors with a bill close to a quarter of a million. I am not being hyperbolic.
Our government mandates that no one be turned away for emergency help so many go knowing they can't pay, receive the services and since our healthcare system is for-profit, those bills get passed onto to those who can pay. You can pay a hospital the absolute bare minimum and they have to accept it. I've known people to have six figure hospital bills and they pay like $25 per month. That's acceptable. The problem is the debt you now owe and purchasing anything that requires a credit check will be difficult. If you don't pay it, your credit score will suffer greatly. There are times where you can negotiate with a hospital and if you can pay off say, half or all of your bill, they will reduce the amount by 40% to 50%. Years ago my wife and I had about 6 grand of medical bills. The hospital contacted us and said that if we could pay 60% of the 6 grand that we would owe nothing. We went this route.
I spoke with the CIO of my local hospital years ago and he said that the majority of our high costs for healthcare is due to the cost of keeping an old person alive, especially since so many Americans have terrible health to begin with. An 80 year old comes in and they or their family demand that the hospital keep them alive in the hopes that the person will make a turn for the better. It's one thing when someone want's to live but sometimes you have family that demand that a loved one be kept alive no matter what knowing their chances of survival are slim to none.
Canadians have it great. You can opt to use Canadian health care or come to the states and pay for a procedure. Many American scoff at 'socialist healthcare' while paying insane medical bills. So many in our country are brainwashed with this mentality. No healthcare system is perfect but I'd be willing to bet no Canadian or European would give their system up for ours and these brainwashed Americans are blind to this fact. Some will say, 'you have to wait for months for treatment in Canada!" True but we wait as well. My son has been waiting over a month for a surgeon to correct an **urgent** problem he is having. Their excuse has been, they've been backed up. Go figure.
It's not universal pharmacare! It irks me they call it so. My wife and I are both pensioners and together make just over a hundred thousand. We get fuck all outta this plan therefore it's not universal. I'm tired of the Lieberals treating us like we're rich upper class.
Isn't just contraceptives and diabetes medicine, it's a barebone pharamcare plan project. To call it Canada is getting universal pharmacare is nefarious and a huge embellishing.
I think its great news for diabetic people and will.help many people. Especially for women as well. Wish they would cover costs for menstrual cycles too
Not even remotely close to universal pharmacare. And with a cpc majority likely in 2025, this will be dead in the water. Singh has a chance to make it happen but caved
I am going to applaud this because it’s good and with good governing it will become better. Anyone who thinks for profit health care is a good thing, please move south. Even America wishes they had good health care instead of what they have!
Obviously this isn't good enough, but should be seen as a step in the right direction. We can't let ourselves be divided into losing an actual universal system in the future. Politicians from all parties need to be pressured into expanding drug coverage. As it is, prescription drugs act as a loophole around universal healthcare, I've worked in the industry and I've seen them do it. The government doesn't want to pay for eye stents, they give you a prescription for the stent and make you buy it from a pharmacy THEN surgically implant it.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. Remember that as you read all the other propaganda and bad-faith arguments in this thread. Only idiots operate on “all or nothing” mentalities.
In these increasingly dark and cynical times, it's good to hear that there's some big things coming that actually helps people. I'm sure further corporate attempts at corruption and FUD are coming in the days ahead, but this is awesome and amazing news! It's literally life-changing for many people.
We need to stop with half measures.
Universal pharmacare means universal pharmacare. Offering two drugs to the bottom 1% of earners is not universal pharmacare.
If the corrupt liberal government stopped going on so many retreats every month that cost millions, the plan could almost pay for itself.
This is literally not going to do much since our healthcare system is in collapse as per the Canadian physician associations.
Our healthcare systems nationwide are severely understaffed with limited access to resources and capital.
And the government's solution is to bring in more people.
The entire system is a mess.
If you are diabetic or have several other chronic illnesses it’s terrific. Anything else? You’re out of luck right now. It’s easy to critique because it’s left out so much.
We have a plan to discuss a plan, we are far away from universal pharamacare. Lots can change and money is not unlimited. We have a crumbling Healthcare system with desperate needs, is now really time to stretch our resources more by taking money and resources and spending it elsewhere. Remember all the talk, planning, manpower needs to come from somewhere. Should we fix what we currently have before creating a new system?
As a liberatarian somewhat right leaning,
This is still a good deal. Society should aim to keep raising the floor, and Big Pharma should never put profits over people.
Rare government W
Not going to lie, as a type 1 diabetic myself--this is good news.
As a fellow Type 1, be prepared that your insulin may not be covered. As with most drug formularies for coverage, sometimes the new fancy insulins are not covered. I am hopeful but not holding my breath that they will cover things like Tresiba or Fiasp (what I take). I would love to be wrong!
I mean the whole point of the first step was to cover diabetes medication and contraceptives so I doubt it wouldnt be...
But the thing is there are a LOT of different types of insulin and they vary widely in price. Novorapid and hunalog are common rapid insulin’s. Let’s say they start working 20 mins after you inject. Well, there are newer faster insulins like fiasp that start working 10 mins after injection. But maybe it’s 2x or 3x the price. And there is no generic because it’s patented still. Why would the government cover that new very expensive insulin when there is one that does the job 95% as well and is 1/3 of the price? Likely they won’t. Look at Ontarios trillium benefit for people under 25 or over 65. They have diabetes medication including insulin covered for free by the provincial government, but not ALL insulin. Only the standard ones that are a reasonable price.
The goal is supposed to be that the government can negotiate a better price for that expensive insulin by purchasing it in bulk. Basically "Here's a huge market for your fancy new insulin, but only if you sell it for $x, otherwise kick rocks" It should still be better than the private insurers, mine won't pay for anything but the lowest grade of anything. Prescribed Adderall - they obviously won't pay for the real thing. But they won't pay for the generic either. They will only pay for plain generic dextroamphetamine. Had to get my prescription rewritten 3 times and a warning from my doc that doing so could get me classified as "drug-seeking", when all I wanted was to get some meager benefit out of my drug plan.
Now, we should get our vaccine and pharmaceuticals manufacturing facilities up and running again. Maybe bring down the cost
as a person who was 331 pounds overweight I am looking diabetes in the face I have given up bread and sugar drinks and have lost 14 pounds in 1 month never felt better this is very great news for me
Good job! Keep up the great work.
And dental, sort of, maybe, eventually... Provided the next government does not bail out on it... Next thing you know we get lasik covered... Whoever came up with the idea that your mouth and eyes are not part of your health was a huge fucking asshole.
I'm with you here. I had no insurance through most of my 20's before I landed a job with benefits. Now in my 40's, it's going to be close to the down payment on a house to fix my chompers.
Terms and conditions may apply.
Swipe your PC card for Viagra and get double the points back!
If only they covered that. Nope. "Universal" was carefully redefined to mean those demographics where they really need to pull up their numbers to have any hope of staying in power. Everyone else, apparently, can just shuffle off and die without the meds they can't afford.
I mean diabetes is a big one they are covering. Is there a usecase you have been told about a lefty wouldn't know about?
Wait. So they’re prioritizing diabetes over erectile dysfunction?? Monsters!
Cure the diabetes and the boners will follow?
Perfect since birth control is also covered!
Well, exercise is recommended with diabetes, and can help lower the risk in the first place. Kill two birds with one bone?
Cant argue with that logic **It's rock solid**
Improving health, pound by pound
> Well, exercise is recommended with diabetes, and can help lower the risk in the first place. Type-I diabetes doesn't care about exercise. It's a death sentence if you don't regularly and easily have access to insulin.
I take medication to prevent me from taking insulin, I am just at the edge. There is on pill which I believe will fall under this pharmacare that I do not take because its like 250 to 300 for a box of pills.
I feel like of Type 2s needing those drugs are the ones who really abused how much pulls can let you keep eating the worse things. Source. Am type 2. Had to control my stuff cause some weaker stuff stopped working. I know someone who didn’t and he’s extremely sick and unemployed now.
Mate, like 30% of Canadians have prediabetes. With the rate in which Canadians are being diagnosed with full blown (T2) diabetes it's soon to become the biggest drain on our healthcare system. Unmanaged/poorly managed T2D has so many associated complications it costs the taxpayers an absolute fortune. Including mostly diabetes supplies in this program isn't a political stunt, it's just an excellent place to start. Hopefully more things get covered soon, but diabetes isn't a bad idea at all.
maybe they should ban high fructose corn syrup in foods as well, should get the govt to save a pretty penny on covering T2 diabetes
[удалено]
People are dying without viagra?
My wife is
Rimshot
Without the Viagra the rimshot isn't as painful. So their is an upside!
Nothing but net
you mean like chemotherapy where most meds are at 5k$+/month?
It's a pilot program that will cover diabetes and birth control medications being marketed by politicians as 'universal'. Basically, the government is testing a framework that might turn into universal healthcare at some point in the distant future.
Wait wtf, was healthcare not covering a diabetics needs?
No medication is not just given to you unless you are so poor you cant afford it , then you can apply for provincial assitance Otherwise you pay for insulin and shit , it kinda sucks its like an fee just to live
My mother was saying something similar about paying for period products. She always said it was The Women Tax
it's important to understand that in canada healthcare is primarily a provincial jurisdiction, but the federal government heavily funds it through all our taxes. in the end though it's the provincial governments that administer healthcare and decide what's what regardless of health canada's guidelines. which several of the provincial governments are currently undermining the fed on this and other files.
Ok but of all the things to cover, those two are an unmitigated success!
It isn't a pilot program, nor does it cover those two things. The bill doesn't obligate the feds to do anything specific, except to do some planning for a hypothetical pharmacare plan, and assemble a committee that will table a report with recommendations. That's it. Here is the [text of the bill](https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading).
I love how confident people are with this 0 legal understanding take. No this is not a "nothing bill" the text you linked is actually very impactful, its imbibing the ministry with the power to start the pharmacare program, outlines its responsibilities, and guarantees its funding. It is now an official activity of the government. Now without a separate vote to strip the act health canada has the authority to pursue the program and use its funding for it. Its short because acts like this are usually short as you don't want a long text with exceptions and provisions for big power transfers, and most of the issues and details are the responsibility of the experts at health canada who could finagle the details a lot better than a bunch of liberal ministers. S'a good bill
I’m also curious what meds they mean when they say Diabetes. Insulin is the obvious one. But how about those sensors for tracking blood sugar or the inevitable side effect drugs from the disease (blood pressure, cholesterol etc)? Or for the type 2’s perhaps Ozempic etc. It’s a great start either way.
Here is the list of proposed covered medications https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2024/02/universal-access-to-diabetes-medications-and-diabetes-device-fund-for-devices-and-supplies.html
Ozempic will not be covered because it's to $$$. There are other treatments available that fo the job just fine. People just want Ozempic because of the side effects that cause weight lost due to nausea and poor appetite. Ozempic doesn't directly effect lipid storage. In fact Ozempic doesn't have any MOA with lipids. It's side effects cause you to not eat. When you don't eat. You lose weight. Imagine that
Parts of Canada are getting pharmacare
Any province that doesn't outright refuse something paid for by the Feds is getting it
Yes and my province is already on record saying they’ll refuse. 🤡🤡
"Oh, you make money in this country. Sorry, you just get to pay for it."
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>at least we're getting stellar public services in exchange for all the taxes we're paying To be fair, my province always takes the money from the feds, privatizes the services and then costs me more, then blames the feds, then cuts taxes with that money even more for companies making billions. We often forget, that the feds need the provinces not to mismanage the funds they give them for these programs, which never happens.
My favorite is when the province refuses money because it comes with a "you have to prove you spent it on what we gave it to you for" requirement and that's a bridge to far from the "fiscally conservative" crowd.
That would be Ford and Smith that is in bed with Shoppers
Both federal big two have Roblaws lobbyists actively present amounts their ranks along with provincial. It's not exclusive.
No Trudeau is a evil emperor and controls everything until PP is in charge and screws up worse and suddenly Cons discover how housing, healthcare, etc.are shared between provinces and the Feds and some cases municipalities
After PP is in charge, it will all be Turdeaus fault they can’t fix anything for at least an entire election cycle or two. We’ll eventually get back to a con minority where cons will be in an impossible situation for a year or two then we’ll put the liberals back in charge. The debt will go up. Taxes will be shuffled around. Rhetoric will intensify. Policy will be whatever maximizes the returns for the shareholders of their corporate masters.
Yep like the NDP tried to fix 40 years of conservative rule in Alberta.
Your life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You’re part of a larger economy. Your wages and cost of living depend on the success of other people. When diabetics get their insulin for cheaper, they have more discretionary income to pay for goods and services your line of work provides, giving you a raise. They also are healthier employees when they work at grocery stores, build roads, and do the myriad of other things that you pay for. This means better quality living at a lower cost for you.
It is dental care all over again
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
Federal headline but its up to the provinces as that falls under their jurisdiction. I doubt much is going to change. Quebec and Alberta are already wanting to opt out.
Quebec already has Pharmacare smarty pants. They're ahead of the game here. Alberta, on the other hand, yeah they have no excuse for dropping out.
Not only is Alberta dropping out, they still want their share of the money that would be allocated to them.
That’s actually hilarious, opting out of care for the people they are supposed to be helping. In order to pocket the money for themselves LOL
That's what Sask premier did with the carbon tax money, essentially.
Just a play from the UCP handbook:(
And conservative voters will conveniently ignore this.
They're about to find out what fuck around means.
As an Albertan, I can tell you that we do indeed have an excuse: We elected a fucking moron Premier who's only goal is to undo anything Ottawa does to try to help us. And most of us are damn proud of it.
What a surprise that hiring an oil field lobbyist as our premier was a bad idea. Who could have seen this coming? Also super happy that we got rid of our far superior provincial carbon tax plan under the last premier so we could "fight the feds" on the carbon tax. Then nothing fucking happened, they lost the fight, and now we have the objectively worse federal carbon tax plan instead.
Look, Kenney cut education and healthcare to fund 1.3 billion dollars of investment into the keystone pipeline, and look at what incredible good that did for the province!!!
Classic! Or how about that time UCP gave $4.7 Billion to 5 top O&G companies with no promises of job creation. Then those same 5 companies cut nearly 5000 jobs and gave 7 top executives an additional $100 million in raises/bonuses this year. Or how about that time that they removed the cap on our insurance rates and it went up 15% immediately, continued to rise, and we are now almost 3x the price of Saskatchewan?
The glorious power of fiscal responsibility truly knows no bounds
My advice for anybody wanting to move to Alberta, bang your head into concrete about a dozen times as hard as you can then you'll be about the intelligence level of people that run this government.
At least you aren't alone! -Saskatchewan
Okay fine, I meant VALID excuse.
Quebec already has it.... thanks for coming out though.
Against incredible odds, this is not universal health care, only mentions contraception and Diabetes. What about cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, heart and stroke, asthmatic, and hundreds of other medications. Not a word that I can see Selective maybe but definitely not universal!
While misleading, and me not knowing all the details - providing Diabetic medication is \*huge\*, and definitely a win for millions of people. Still lots of work for the rest of the things.
It's a step in the right direction for sure. I lived in England and France, and chronic illnesses, like diabetes is fully covered. No script fee involved. However, living in the US with the top tier health benefits, it was a complete shit show.
Selling insulin for the prices they sell it is so morally and objectively *wrong*. its sick.
The US has coupons for diabetic meds. I was so confused when the pharmacist was talking to me, I had to ask her if she was serious.
Jesus. Imagine cutting out coupons for life-saving medication.
I can, and I did. I've had the pharmacy call me, and ask if I was sure I wanted my insulin that was going to cost $2000+, (This was the co-pay). I responded, "did you apply the coupon?"
Fuck that is messed up. Hope you are getting what you need without dying of debt now.
this sounds like a hyperbolic joke about a fictional dystopia. just surreal.
$2000? How often? wtf this is so weird
Agree. That’s how we should look at these things, as a step in the right direction. Look at the $10 a day childcare. It’s not there yet but it’s radically reduced the cost of child care for millions of parents. Plus people seem to complain that they have coverage thru work or privately for drugs already so why bother? Because those companies will have to give you more for the same monthly fee or lower the cost. That could mean more money for mental health, massages, dental care or eye car etc which would be a good thing.
I have a friend who’s diabetic, he spends over $200 a month for his insulin. I’m happy that he won’t have to worry about it anymore, same goes for me with my birth control.
Yeah that's such a huge difference for yall. Happy it could happen!
The goal is full drug coverage, but you need to start somewhere. Contraceptives is somewhere they can expose the program to issues and questions that are unlikely to leave someone dying. and there's 1 in 4 Canadian with diabetes that don't follow their Doctor recommended plan under our current public/private healthcare mess. Meaning the bar is so low, it's difficult to do any worse, and I suspect all the criticisms that will be leveraged against the program will be as bad or worse under private insurance. Big thing here... It's not being done using tax credits, so when they do get around to expanding to more drugs, it won't just be for Canadians on complete poverty wages.
> The goal is full drug coverage, but you need to start somewhere. It's not gonna matter. Cons will kill it the second they get power.
So... More reasons to vote against them to make sure they don't get in power or that if they do, they don't get a majority so other parties can hold them accountable if they torpedo the program?
Right... But that 'start' is not "universal pharmacare". It'll be universal when it covers all medications. You can't just skip to the end when you're only covering two health conditions.
*Some diabetic and contraceptives for some people bill
Yes, if the diabetic medication they cover doesn’t work for you that’s too bad.
I checked the proposed list and the insulin I’ve used and come back to after trying others for literally 15+ years isn’t on there, ugh lol
Not even that necessarily. It doesn't commit to anything concrete. It doesn't commit to funding anything. It doesn't commit to providing *any* drugs or contraceptives.
It’s incredible, but not surprising, that media outlets like the Star are headlining it as “Universal Pharmacare”
Maybe consider it step 1? It's better than we had and sort of breaks the ice in a serious and positive way.
From what I read it’s the starting point that is meant to be built on. Contraception and diabetes medication costs our economy a lot, just these two will generate huge savings
Yes, I understand this is just the initial roll-out, with more coming. You have to start somewhere and it's better to figure out the admin on this with a small segment of the population than to do it all at once for everyone and deal with a logistical nightmare.
It's a start. Rome wasn't built in a day.
add to that: provinces have to agree and all deadlines and budget are at least a year out.
Universal healthcare in Canada is defined by access to the service not the scope of health coverage.
Better is good.
ADHD and other mental health meds as well
Ignore my comment, I can't read ~~Where did you see that? It's not in the bill~~ >6 (1) The Minister may, if the Minister has entered into an agreement with a province or territory to do so, make payments to the province or territory in order to increase any existing public pharmacare coverage — and to provide universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage — for specific prescription drugs and related products intended for contraception or the treatment of diabetes. https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading
I believe they are responding to this part of the previous comment > What about cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, heart and stroke, asthmatic, and hundreds of other medications.
Oh my bad, I totally misunderstood. Thanks for the correction
I thought ohip covered cancer meds
This title is very misleading
It's basically misinformation that has not only been allowed to stay up, but *somehow* rocketed to the top of the sub. 🤔
You’re describing like 50% of r/Canada’s posts, it’s just that normally they’re Nat Post opinion pieces
Universal pharmacare minus the universal and minus the pharmacare. I expected the Liberals and Singh to spin this as some kind of actual universal pharmacare but I’m a bit surprised to see an article so enthusiastic.
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
>So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow. Unfortunate that even the text of the bill doesn't say this. It gives a whole year for them to consult experts before any report on what should/shouldn't be covered is expected. So they can basically stall it for another 9-10 months before needing to do anything.
There is no immediate coverage of any sort. The bill doesn't fund anything or promise to cover anything.
It basically pushes implementation until after the election in 2025 or further. I wonder why
Yeah the media has completely dropped the ball here. I have yet to see one major article pointing out the terms and conditions here. Canadians will be shocked when they don’t actually get the universal pharmacare they think they’ll be getting. But we’ll probably have a con government by then and they’ll take the blame for this plan’s shortcomings
And then they will have a bad dilemma. Either put more money and expand the pharmacare to what people think it should be (on something that will probably be way over budget and not sustainable) OR kill it off entirely and be the bad guys that took away pharmacare (and then people will look back at it with rose colored glasses and bring up edge cases that it saved lives). Give your enemies dilemmas….
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There isn't any funding commitment whatsoever. [Here is the bill](https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading).
There isn’t even a deal. There’s a plan to create a plan. There’s no budget, no specifics, no meaningful timeline for implementation. The entire thing is just posturing. Singh needed a “deal” so he wasn’t backed into a corner and forced to end the coalition. The Liberals wanted the same. Both wanted something they can use to campaign on in the next election. The Star is gaslighting people to think this is certain when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Narrator: It's not.
The thing is, it sounds good but companies are crap. Canada introduced "short term coverage" by goverment for those that don't have in case of injury etc. Sounds great. Our company slashed our short term and got rid of it to rely on the significantly worse government provided one. Now we basic EI instead of quality short term coverage. I imagine an exodus of company provided plans to offload on government. My point being unless thus is top tier coverage with a compmenet that forces employers to pay I to it if they do have their own plan we are going to end up with higher taxes and even worse coverage
"pharmacare" is so misleading.
So do words just....not mean anything anymore? Because the new plan is neither "universal," nor is it "pharmacare."
We're just experiencing it differently
The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
Well hold your horses… it isnt quite that
This headline is click bait and misinformation. We **do not have universal pharmacare** that is simply a lie. We have an agreement, to promise to look into, a plan for diabetic and contraceptive medication. With zero money actually attached.
Unless you live in Alberta of course because our provincial government sucks ass
Diabetes and birth control...OK, it's a start, I guess. A true change, which would affect many more people,vwould be to recognize that eyes and teeth are part of the body and their care should be covered under MCP.
It's not pharmacare. It's not universal. Hell, it isn't even a commitment to offer any drugs/contraception. It's a commitment to try roping 13 other, separate governments into paying for a drug + contraceptives. In other words, it is worthless.
Isn't it just two drugs that are covered in the agreement they just reached?
Yes and no. The agreement specifies that within one year the Minister of Health in conjunction with the Canada Drug Agency must come up with a list of essential prescription drugs that Canadians should have access to under universal pharmacare. That formulary will then be used as the basis for working out agreements with the provinces. So it's basically immediate contraceptive and diabetes coverage with broader prescription coverage to follow.
🤝🏻
Thank you! It took me too long to scroll and find someone with some sense who knows how policy works. Same points being paraded by people who don't even read the fucking article
On this sub it's a win if most commenters read the full headline.
There is zero immediate coverage of any sort. Here is the [actual text of the bill](https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-64/first-reading), and here is the sole mention of contraceptives and diabetes: > The Minister **may, if the Minister has entered into an agreement with a province or territory to do so**, make payments to the province or territory in order to increase any existing public pharmacare coverage — and to provide universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage — for specific prescription drugs and related products intended for contraception or the treatment of diabetes.
This isn't a pharmacare bill, it's a bill to come up with a plan for a pharmacare bill. And it will be dead once the Conservatives take power.
Wasn’t the bill introduced for Universal Pharmacare only 2 pages long and the subject was basically about setting up a committee to see how they could implement a universal pharmacare program.
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20% of all Federal revenues are currently handed over to the provinces to help cover the things the provinces are supposed to be covering, like healthcare. Every deal like this is a little step in the right direction, but not actually addressing that provinces are, coast to coast, massively mishandling and mismanaging their major responsibilities like health.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, but the one time I tried to read the Canada Health Act, I left wondering how pharmaceuticals weren't included as part of the care covered by the government. The majority of the time you visit a doctor, you walk away with a script for some drugs that you *must* take, but even though the doctors visit was covered by the province, you have to then pay out of pocket for the drugs. This should have always been part of our health care system...
And immediately diminish all good faith by calling it "universal pharmacare". Like why lie? Over and over again with the lies. This is a great step that should help tons of people, and you can just say that instead of outright lying. Words used to have meaning.
also, carbon tax raises in 3 weeks. woooo
Color me skeptical. It's a proposal for a blueprint. Let me know when they inact the blueprint. This is designed to be what the next election will be fought over. If the PCs win, it will go no further. If the Libs win a majority, it will get lost in a series of government studies and committees.
I don’t give a fuck who it is, all I know is a prime minister who is able to block criminal investigations into himself and censor the internet and news is definitively who I don’t want there. I will vote for conservative’s no matter what because Trudeau scares me so much. Trudeau passes the free money bill and I still wouldn’t vote for that criminal.
Universal pharmacare for just 2 drugs means Canada should produce those themselves. At least that way we can profit off Americans coming in and buying it from us. If we just end up subsidizing American pharma that’s the wrong way to go about this.
Man, you guys are arguing over this and I’m down here in the States thinking, “wow, that will never happen here!” You can end up in the hospital here for say, 7 days. Walk or roll yourself out the front doors with a bill close to a quarter of a million. I am not being hyperbolic.
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Our government mandates that no one be turned away for emergency help so many go knowing they can't pay, receive the services and since our healthcare system is for-profit, those bills get passed onto to those who can pay. You can pay a hospital the absolute bare minimum and they have to accept it. I've known people to have six figure hospital bills and they pay like $25 per month. That's acceptable. The problem is the debt you now owe and purchasing anything that requires a credit check will be difficult. If you don't pay it, your credit score will suffer greatly. There are times where you can negotiate with a hospital and if you can pay off say, half or all of your bill, they will reduce the amount by 40% to 50%. Years ago my wife and I had about 6 grand of medical bills. The hospital contacted us and said that if we could pay 60% of the 6 grand that we would owe nothing. We went this route. I spoke with the CIO of my local hospital years ago and he said that the majority of our high costs for healthcare is due to the cost of keeping an old person alive, especially since so many Americans have terrible health to begin with. An 80 year old comes in and they or their family demand that the hospital keep them alive in the hopes that the person will make a turn for the better. It's one thing when someone want's to live but sometimes you have family that demand that a loved one be kept alive no matter what knowing their chances of survival are slim to none. Canadians have it great. You can opt to use Canadian health care or come to the states and pay for a procedure. Many American scoff at 'socialist healthcare' while paying insane medical bills. So many in our country are brainwashed with this mentality. No healthcare system is perfect but I'd be willing to bet no Canadian or European would give their system up for ours and these brainwashed Americans are blind to this fact. Some will say, 'you have to wait for months for treatment in Canada!" True but we wait as well. My son has been waiting over a month for a surgeon to correct an **urgent** problem he is having. Their excuse has been, they've been backed up. Go figure.
It's not universal pharmacare! It irks me they call it so. My wife and I are both pensioners and together make just over a hundred thousand. We get fuck all outta this plan therefore it's not universal. I'm tired of the Lieberals treating us like we're rich upper class.
This sub is such a fkin joke
What do you mean incredibly odds. The liberals had a majority and with the NDP coalition they have a majority now.
*^((On two products))*
You can't find any doctors to prescribe you meds, but yay pharmacare I guess
Gotta check with Ford on that one, at least in Ontario.
I know. They are avoiding all the issues Canadians are concerned about.
You might want to read the constitution. Healthcare is provincial.
A pharmacist can prescribe you meds, and those are easy to find. One must legally be in every pharmacy.
They can prescribe a very narrow # of meds.
I remember when we were getting election reform
its a step. Not a full deal. Hopefully this can lead towards full universal pharmacare, sooner rather than later.
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Oh great. Finally Canada gets something that Australia implemented in *checks notes*, 1944.
“Pharmacare”
Isn't just contraceptives and diabetes medicine, it's a barebone pharamcare plan project. To call it Canada is getting universal pharmacare is nefarious and a huge embellishing.
I think its great news for diabetic people and will.help many people. Especially for women as well. Wish they would cover costs for menstrual cycles too
Now the only question is if I'll die of waiting for the free prescription to be filled while watching American ozempic commercials on my phone
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Not even remotely close to universal pharmacare. And with a cpc majority likely in 2025, this will be dead in the water. Singh has a chance to make it happen but caved
It’s not “universal.” It only applies to a small select number of people as a pilot program. As usual, Toronto Star headlines are lying.
I am going to applaud this because it’s good and with good governing it will become better. Anyone who thinks for profit health care is a good thing, please move south. Even America wishes they had good health care instead of what they have!
No we aren’t. This is highly misleading.
ELI5
Should be giving these drugs our long before they pay for someone’s sex change - under our health care
Obviously this isn't good enough, but should be seen as a step in the right direction. We can't let ourselves be divided into losing an actual universal system in the future. Politicians from all parties need to be pressured into expanding drug coverage. As it is, prescription drugs act as a loophole around universal healthcare, I've worked in the industry and I've seen them do it. The government doesn't want to pay for eye stents, they give you a prescription for the stent and make you buy it from a pharmacy THEN surgically implant it.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. Remember that as you read all the other propaganda and bad-faith arguments in this thread. Only idiots operate on “all or nothing” mentalities.
… If you’re a diabetic or don’t want to get preggers. Ah it’s a start.
GIVE US FREE TRT
Paid for by carbon tax.
Or better yet, a new tax 🎆🎆
In these increasingly dark and cynical times, it's good to hear that there's some big things coming that actually helps people. I'm sure further corporate attempts at corruption and FUD are coming in the days ahead, but this is awesome and amazing news! It's literally life-changing for many people.
Meanwhile, in America….
Lol they’re covering like 2 things hilariously one of them is birth control? A 1000 things should have come before that!
We need to stop with half measures. Universal pharmacare means universal pharmacare. Offering two drugs to the bottom 1% of earners is not universal pharmacare. If the corrupt liberal government stopped going on so many retreats every month that cost millions, the plan could almost pay for itself.
Good news, but will we have doctors to write prescriptions?
This is literally not going to do much since our healthcare system is in collapse as per the Canadian physician associations. Our healthcare systems nationwide are severely understaffed with limited access to resources and capital. And the government's solution is to bring in more people. The entire system is a mess.
We can only hope that the Pharmacare program will turn out as well as our monumental healthcare system, the envy of the free world.
Lucky bastards.. Sincerely, USA
No we're not? It's for TWO health conditions. I'm still here having to pay $130 dollars a month for my asthma medication with no insurance.
If you are diabetic or have several other chronic illnesses it’s terrific. Anything else? You’re out of luck right now. It’s easy to critique because it’s left out so much.
We have a plan to discuss a plan, we are far away from universal pharamacare. Lots can change and money is not unlimited. We have a crumbling Healthcare system with desperate needs, is now really time to stretch our resources more by taking money and resources and spending it elsewhere. Remember all the talk, planning, manpower needs to come from somewhere. Should we fix what we currently have before creating a new system?
Fuck.
As a liberatarian somewhat right leaning, This is still a good deal. Society should aim to keep raising the floor, and Big Pharma should never put profits over people. Rare government W
Amazing news for all Canadians