Canadians May Soon Enjoy a Single-Payer Universal Prescription Drug Plan
A deal struck between Canada's New Democratic Party and Justin Trudeau's Liberals may pave the road for free prescription drugs for Canadians. But the plan is up against powerful enemies in Big Pharma and insurance.
Canadian prime minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (L) and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh prepare for the federal election debate in September 2021. (Justin Tang / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
In Canada, a parliamentary supply and confidence agreement between the governing Liberal Party and the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has moved the idea of a single-payer universal prescription drug plan — known as pharmacare — back into the spotlight. The Liberal-NDP deal will see the latter support the government on spending and other essential bills that, if defeated, would likely trigger an election. As the Conservative Party undertakes the process of choosing its next leader, this arrangement paves the way for a period of parliamentary stability that could stretch to 2025.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize the Liberals, the NPD, and this agreement. Even so, the pact offers a real opportunity to advance pharmacare and usher in appreciable, permanent material changes in the lives of millions of Canadians who struggle to afford the medications they need. However, pharmacare has powerful enemies and developing, instituting, and administering such a plan will not be easy.
The Devil in the Details
In its 2018 report, the Broadbent Institute ran down the history of efforts to institute pharmacare in Canada. The idea first appeared on the national scene in 1945, as part of discussions over national Medicare policy ideas. It didn’t make the cut as part of the universal single-payer medical insurance program that emerged in the 1960s, but the idea is a popular one and the issue has been kept alive by stubborn public support. As the report mentions, in 1997, Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien’s government promised to “develop a national plan, timetable and a fiscal framework for providing Canadians with better access to medically necessary drugs.” That didn’t happen. Moreover, it sounds quite a bit like the promise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh have just made.
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