Politically Smart Government Spending
Today or yesterday the Liberals inked an agreement with Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to bring in a universal pharmacare program to the extent that it will cover diabetes drugs and birth control drugs. This was politically very smart for the NDP, who is the responsible party here. Birth control is something i really don’t know much about but expect there are a whole lot of women that are on birth control pills or whatever. Both these groups are pr0minent in NDP target groups.
The media, at least the CBC which Poilievre promises to shut down, are saying that this agreement is foundational to the development of a full single payer pharma care program. It is a universal system which the Liberals were opposing because of the cost. The Conservatives, like they always do will point to the price and question if it is affordable.
Let’s remind ourselves that a government commission which studied the issue concluded that it would, after the initical cost, save the government money as it will add to productivity and save on people ending up in hospitals because they could not afford their necessary drugs.
Drug prices are ridiculously expensive. And the universal pharma care program will reduce the cost as they will be buying in bulk. Hopefully they will look beyond American big pharma for purchasing. We could save bundles purchasing from Cuba and help the Cuban people at the same time.
The problem with Conservatives, the Liberals and to a lesser degree the NDP is that they don’t recognize the difference between wasteful government spending and sound investments.
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