As the federal government winds its way towards some kind of solution to providing medicines as part of Medicare, patients cannot wait.  Canada’s nurses unveiled the results of a new study– the first of its kind in Canada – that reveals the number of people in Canada who die or fall ill because prescription medications are unaffordable. The study, Body Count, confirms that shortfalls in prescription drug coverage result in daily deaths and illness among people with treatable conditions, adding urgency to recent calls for the implementation of a universal pharmacare plan.

The study results are an important contribution to the lively conversation on national pharmacare, arriving on the heels of a parliamentary report calling for universal pharmacare and the emergence of this issue as the top priority among Liberal delegates at their recent Convention. The results back up what nurses witness every day as our patients struggle to pay for the medications they need to stay healthy.