It Won’t Be Easy: How to Make Universal Pharmacare Work in Canada

Universal Pharmacare in Canada: A Prescription for Equity in Healthcare

Despite progressive universal drug coverage and pharmaceutical policies found in other countries, Canada remains the only developed nation with a publicly funded healthcare system that does not include universal coverage for prescription drugs. In the absence of a national pharmacare plan, a province may choose to cover a specific sub-population for certain drugs. Altho...

It’s Time to Finally Kill the Zombies; Comment on “Universal Pharmacare in Canada”

The movement for a national pharmacare plan in Canada is growing, but at the same time the multinational pharmaceutical companies and their supporters are critical of such a move. The three major arguments that they make are that all that is needed is to “fill in the gaps,” ie, cover those who currently are uninsured or underinsured, that private drug plans are superior to public ones because t...

The Orthotropic Neobladder; How to Make It Easy?

Radical cystectomy (RCX) and urinary diversion is the standard treatment for patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer and some patients with non-muscle invasive disease who failed the intra-vesical treatment [1]. Multiple techniques of urinary diversion are present. However, the orthotopic neobladder (OBS) may be better in terms of quality of life, as it is the closest to the normal bladder...

National Pharmacare in Canada: Equality or Equity, Accessibility or Affordability; Comment on “Universal Pharmacare in Canada: A Prescription for Equity in Healthcare”

Canada’s federal government intends to take steps to implement national pharmacare so that all Canadians have prescription drug coverage they need at an affordable price. Relatively limited funds have so far been pledged to support national pharmacare, which raises the question: what kind of program is envisioned? Since the government has already introduced regulations intended to reduce new dr...

Canada can afford universal pharmacare – no more excuses.

How to make it work for Africa’s smallholders?

smallholder schemes will not survive Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) as it is currently envisioned. For IMT to be successful in the African smallholder context, governments must first enhance the income-creation potential of smallholder irrigated farming by strengthening market access, promoting high-value crops and improving extension and technical support to smallholder irrigators. This ...