A Roadmap to a Rational Pharmacare Policy in Canada

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For over two decades, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) has been advocating for a national pharmacare plan. Now, as the costs of prescription drugs continue to rise, putting pressures on a health care system that is already stretched to the limit, the CFNU is gaining some new allies. There is a growing consensus that prescription drug policies require reform. Advocates for reform include the C.D. Howe Institute (a well-known public policy think tank), the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, provincial and territorial governments, as well as patient advocates from coast-to-coast. A Roadmap to a Rational Pharmacare Policy calls for governments, insurers, policy makers, and pharmaceutical companies to recognize that the present hybrid system we are using to fund prescription drug purchases isn't working. As the title of this report indicates, Dr. Gagnon offers a roadmap to a rational drug policy so that Canada can move into the 21st century, alongside its OECD counterparts. He suggests that governments need to seize the initiative and take advantage of the emerging consensus on the need for reform, and offers a series of a pragmatic, achievable steps that can be taken now to turn policy into practice.--Message from the CFNU.