free prescription medicine to everyone
No one should go without the medicine they need because they can't afford it.
But that's the reality for millions of Canadians.
For over 25 years now, Liberals have been promising Pharmacare. Our parents, grandparents and children are paying the price for this broken promise, while Big Pharma keeps making record profits.
Time and time again, Justin Trudeau and his team have caved into the demands of Big Pharma instead of helping Canadians. Liberals delayed price reform of patented medication four times when it could have saved billions of dollars for Canadians.
Only a single-payer Pharmacare system will achieve the savings, efficiencies and fairness that is the hallmark of Canadian Medicare. Anything less will be unacceptable to Canadians and the NDP.
New Democrats have used our power to force the Liberals to do something they didn’t want to do – agree to pass legislation for Universal Pharmacare by the end of the year. Knowing the Liberals history of caving to Big Pharma and big insurance companies, we wanted to introduce our version of a Canada Pharmacare Act today, to be transparent with Canadians about our expectations.
It is crucial that the legislation is clear so that the system will be universal and entirely public, so no one will have to pay out of pocket for their medication.
Ultimately, Pharmacare will save Canadians $500 a year on average, and it will save our public health care system $1,488 per patient per year.