Canadians are fed up with the private sector’s encroachment on health care as much as they are with backroom corporate deals that would negatively affect their rights as consumers. It took less than one week to kill what may have been an incredibly lucrative financial agreement. Progressives would be mindful to remember the power of sustained direct action and bad publicity.
I’m going to say again if the liberals drop the ball on providing a single payer pharmacare in Canada they’re going to hand the election to conservatives. There’s no debate to be hand as things are getting more expensive.
Canada is the only developed nation in the world with a publicly funded universal system that does not cover prescription drugs.
The Canadian government can afford to pay for prescriptions. It is a lie that we cannot afford it. Instead of paying pharma companies exorbitant rates we could pay a little more in tax and have everyone covered and cheaper per unit drug prices with the bulk buying plan.
Shame on Mark Holland and the Liberals.
The Liberals do not want to expand the state. People need to understand this: they’re small-L neoliberals to their craven, money-grubbing core that differ from the Conservatives in that they don’t care who you fuck. They like taxes low, regulations light and the public->private money faucet turned up real high.
Once you understand this, most Liberal (and Conservative) policy makes sense: they want to stay in office, and what services they’re forced to provide have to be “market-based” and involve some way for your taxes to fund some rich dude. This is why “pharmacare” won’t be national and single-payer, it’ll be “market based” and involve some way for existing insurers to make a buck.