Nurses have been calling for a national Pharmacare programme for 15 years that would provide universal drug coverage.
The nurses met with the Premiers in the Yukon to make the case. New Brunswick Nurses Union President Marilyn Quinn says a national pharmacare programme could save Canada from 9 to 11 billion dollars a year.
She says we are the only country with a universal public healthsystem that doesn’t provide universal public coverage of medicines.
Quinn adds they have started to asky why hasn’t it happened and moved to a position of saying the time is now.
. With @CFNU @hassan_yussuff @FedNB_President . Asking Premiers to send a strong message to Feds #pharmacareNow pic.twitter.com/rXlihcHDTe
— Marilyn Quinn (@pres_nbnu) July 21, 2016
Quinn says the money would be saved because there would be just one buyer of prescription drugs for the country as a whole rather than each individual province doing their own purchasing.
She adds one in ten people can’t afford to fill their prescriptions.
