To implement pharmacare, the Liberals will need to negotiate with the provinces, and the mostly Conservative premiers are unlikely to make this easy. The insurance industry also has much to lose.
When people went to their GP asking for painkillers, they weren’t prescribed higher doses of codeine or stronger opioids, as some feared.
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When codeine became a prescription only drug in 2018, the number of overdoses dropped, our new research shows. But restricting sales of codeine is only one way to reduce harm from opioids.
A letter to leaders of Canada’s political parties signed by 1200 academics with expertise in health care calls for parties to commit to a national pharmacare plan.
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The 1964 report that paved the way for Canada’s medicare envisaged that after universal coverage for doctors, the next step would be prescription drugs. But that next step hasn’t come.
When drug companies and drug regulators, such as Health Canada, sit down together at “pre-submission meetings” this may have a negative impact on public health.
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Three-quarters of people with an intellectual disability receive prescribed drugs.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto hold a news conference before signing the USMCA. The deal, if passed into law, poses dangers to public health.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The collective public health of Canada, the United States and Mexico will take a hit if the new NAFTA becomes law.
Research shows that six of 11 Health Canada scientific advisory committees had a majority of members with a direct or indirect financial interest.
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Alarming rise in deaths from two prescription drugs sees them reclassified as class C.
A new review of 372 patient group submissions to the Canadian Agency for Drugs or Technology in Health – about whether new medicines should be covered by public plans – reveals a total of 1896 conflicts of interest.
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A new study reveals how many patient groups lobby for new drugs to be funded by public plans in Canada – all while receiving funding from the companies manufacturing the drugs in question.
In 2016, drug company salespeople gave out almost 10 million pills to doctors.
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It takes about three years for safety problems to be identified in new drugs, newer drugs are almost always more expensive, and yet Canadian doctors still hand out hundreds of thousands of samples.
Tax breaks or exemptions for those working in pharmacy, health insurance and pharmaceutical industries could help bolster support for a national pharmacare plan.
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Two community pharmacists suggest a way for improving the palatability of evidence-based universal pharmacare – for those working in health insurance, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
Quick, easy – and very, very risky.
The Conversation UK.
Insurance companies sometimes try to cut costs by substituting less expensive drugs for a specific drug prescription. That’s raising problems in many cases, and actually causing harm.
Supply and demand are often out of sync in the drug industry.
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The medication landscape is complicated and error-riddled, with very few care providers knowing all the drugs you are taking. Here’s how pharmacists could be the solution.
A national pharmacare program may one day be a reality in Canada. Myths abound about how it would work and what the consequences would be for Canadians and pharmaceutical companies.
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As Canadians consider possibilities for pharmacare reform in the coming months, they should have access to the best available evidence about how it might work in our country.
Finding ways to link health care data in a secure and confidential way.
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The Canadian government must undertake regular analysis of the drug shortage problem, if we are ever to develop sustainable solutions.
President Donald Trump releases a ‘blueprint’ to reduce prescription drug prices, with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, May 11, 2018.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The logic behind U.S. president Donald Trump’s proposal that Canada and other countries have been “free-riding” off high prices in the United States is bizarre at best.