Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the government's plans for pharmacare are moving forward, but experts who study government drug plans suggest the Liberals may have lost the political will to take bold steps toward a national program.
People like Marc-André Gagnon were still holding out hope that spending would be set aside in Tuesday's federal budget to create a national, single-payer drug plan.
"We're making steps moving forward. But we'll have to proceed step by step," he said in an interview, adding that first, the cost of drugs needs to be driven down and medications need to be made more accessible. Making headway on pharmacare now would likely mean spending money the government can't spare anymore, Simon Fraser University health policy professor Steven Lewis said in an interview.
Lewis said it's difficult to know how much pharmacare would cost before knowing exactly how the government plans to do it. For example, the government could choose to tax employers who previously offered drug benefits to recoup some of the cost.
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