National Pharmacare

The federal budget was released yesterday.  I am sure this will be a win for belabored Mourneau.  He needs a win after a few uncomfortable months in Parliament.  By and large, Trudeau is leading our country in a positive direction.  Unemployment is at record lows and hasn't been so low since Trudeau was Prime Minister.  (Trudeau the father).  We know that things are moving positively when the Opposition spends time on trivial matters.  Mourneau has been the one taking the most wrath, largely because he is financially savvy and successful.  He clearly doesn't need the salary or hassle of being finance minister yet he seems to be called to serve and to improve our country's finances.  He is exactly the person we would want to be finance minister.

The budget was a feel good budget with something for everyone and focused on gender equity.  Every line item, apparently, went through a gender equity filter.  You know it is a good solid budget when the opposition has little to criticize.  For the NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, this was his first major opportunity to show us his style.  The only criticism that he raised was that "it was a fantasy" meaning that it seemed too good to be true.  The Conservatives major criticism was that it did not tackle the deficit.  The Liberals counter that with their measures to stimulate employment opportunities for women that the increased spending power of families will allow the deficit to be brought down.

What was most interesting to me was the proposal for a national pharmacare program.  Frankly, it has always baffled me that we don't have such a program.  Drugs are a major out of pocket cost for Canadians.  One of our values is universal health care and it is hard to claim that we have such when we have Canadians who can't afford the medication that they need.  One estimate was that 700,000 Canadians are choosing prescription medications over food.

This is a wonderful idea, however, this was the one item in the budget that did not have any money attached to it.  One has to wonder whether putting this in the budget was a test balloon to see how it would fly.  On the other hand, the government was able to convince Eric Hoskins to quit his job as Finance Minister of Ontario to lead the discussion towards this. This seems to suggest that the government is quite serious about this.  Mind you, in fairness, Wynne's Ontario government is under so much stress that I'm sure it wasn't a hard sell to get their finance minister to move on.  Ultimately, though, transfer payments aside, health is a provincial matter.  Most provinces have some sort of program.  Getting them all onboard to agree on a national program seems unlikely.  It would involve allocating some of their health dollars towards this and no province will do this easily.

Also, a national pharmacare program will largely benefit the elderly who are living longer and have multiple health issues. As it stands, however, they are among the most vulnerable.  The most to benefit yet the least likely to provide the political pressure in order to get things moving.

I think our best hope for moving this forward is Donald Trump.  Seriously, as he keeps dismantling the health care system south of the border, the more Canadians will appreciate our health care system and the more the contrast between compassion and profits will become obvious.  Hopefully, all Canadian will want to embrace truly universal health care.