Seniors’ health being compromised

Ihave recently have been made aware that many seniors in our communities are being forced to make decisions that adversely affect their health.

They are being forced to spilt or skip their medications to make them last as they are expensive. This jeopardizes their health and can cause them to end up in a hospital, increasing the cost to the healthcare system. I also know that seniors are foregoing the medications so that they can buy food.

Since then, I have learned that upsetting stories like this are far too common. I have also learned that roughly one third of working Canadians don’t have employer-funded prescription drug coverage.

One in 10 Canadians pay out of pocket for their medication because they either don’t have a prescription drug plan, or because their plan includes costly co-payments, deductibles, limitations, and restrictions.

Canada’s current patchwork system of provincial or territorial plans and private prescription coverage means that too many people are falling through the cracks.

This is why Canada’s unions believe that prescription drug benefits should be extended equally to everyone with a health card.

Last September, the Canadian Labour Congress launched a campaign calling for a public and universal pharmacare plan. Since then, over 40,000 people have signed the petition calling for public prescription drug coverage in Canada. Hundreds of people have shared their own stories of struggling to pay for prescription medication.

Imagine the impact universal pharmacare would have on a self-employed entrepreneur who receives a devastating diagnosis, knowing they can’t afford to pay for their treatment. Or the young woman who struggles to afford her birth control medication. Or the retiree who learns that their drug plan has an annual cap and must pay out of pocket for their prescription medications for several months every year.

It seems obvious that the medication we receive in hospital as part of Canada’s medicare system should also be available when it is prescribed by a family doctor no matter where you work or live.

This led me to ask myself who benefits from the current system of private drug coverage? Well, the answer is simple; it’s pharmaceutical companies who charge grossly inflated prices for vital medications and insurance companies who make hundreds of millions for administering private drug plans.

As a result, no matter what level of coverage you have, every individual, employer, and government is overpaying for the medications we all need. Imagine how much further that money could go towards making us all healthier and wealthier.

I’ll be honest with you, most unionized workers already have prescription drug coverage through our workplace contracts, but Canada’s unions believe these benefits should be extended to everyone. And while unions may not have a financial stake in championing universal pharmacare, the same can’t be said for those opposing it.

Canadian pharmaceutical and insurance companies stand to lose billions if the Canadian government establishes a public and universal pharmacare plan. And I don’t feel bad for them because they are still going to make billions, but you’d better believe they will eagerly spend millions to oppose a universal single-payer prescription drug plan. After all, you’ve got to spend money to make money.

But Canadians don’t believe greed and profit have any place in the delivery of health care. We also know the value of working together to make life better for everyone. After all, that’s the foundation of Canadian health care and it’s time we extend our medicare system to cover prescription drug costs as well.

Canada is the only developed country in the world with a universal health care program that doesn’t include universal prescription drug coverage. Now that the Canadian government is finally considering a national pharmacare plan, we need to call on politicians at every level of government to act in the best interest of every day Canadians.

We all benefit from universal pharmacare, so let’s get it right.

Greg McGowan is president of the South Okanagan Boundary Labour Council