Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has sent a letter to our Premier on the NDP plan to bring in pharmacare for all. He is looking for support from Scott Moe’s government. Singh says sky-high prices put enormous pressure on the provinces. He says prescription drugs are now the second largest spending category in Canadian healthcare. Singh calls his proposal, ‘ground-breaking’. The NDP leader says, one-in-five Canadians either has no drug coverage at all or effectively has no coverage because of high deductibles and co-payments.
As a result, nearly three million Canadians do not take their medication as prescribed because they can’t afford it. Singh says, in this province, each person spends on average $510 annually for medicine. The average Canadian spends $452.
The NDP are also calling on the federal government to reverse cuts in healthcare transfers and increase health funding to the province.