Lexchin Joel
Health Law Can. 2017 Feb;37(2-3):44-51.
Canada is the only country with a universal public health care system that does not include coverage for prescription drugs; lack of drug coverage leads to underuse of necessary medications. Arguments have been advanced for and against a national pharmacare plan. This article investigates six commonly cited reasons for not introducing such a program in order to determine their validity - private plans are doing a good job, public plans should only cover the poor, strengthening the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance is all that is needed, a public plan will deny people access to important new drugs, pharmacare will cost too much and pharmacare is just about money. The evidence presented shows that these are just myths.
加拿大是唯一一个拥有全民公共医疗保健系统却不涵盖处方药保险的国家；缺乏药品保险导致必要药物的使用不足。对于国家药物保险计划，人们提出了支持和反对的理由。本文调查了六个常被提及的不推行此类计划的原因，以确定其合理性——私人保险计划运行良好、公共保险计划应仅覆盖贫困人口、只需加强泛加拿大药品联盟、公共保险计划会使人们无法获得重要新药、药物保险成本过高以及药物保险只是关于钱的问题。所呈现的证据表明这些都只是误解。
