Prescription for savings: how the feds can make pharmacare work for households and employers

We have a historic opportunity to significantly improve our health-care system with the introduction of a national public pharmacare program, and also save billions a year by doing so. But it is important that it be designed properly, and progressively. This would not only be politically appealing, but will also result in a healthier population.

Canada's federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas-Taylor. The best option for households is if a corporate income tax pays for pharmacare. Then middle-class households save over $600 a year on average, although employers likely wouldn’t be so happy seeing their net costs go up far more than their savings from lower drug insurance premiums. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY DAVID MACDONALD AND TOBY SANGER

February 4, 2019

Recent polling has revealed a growing proportion of Canadians are $200 or less away from financial insolvency at month-end, inching up six percentage points to 46 per cent in the last quarter of 2018. An add...

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