Saturday, September 23, 2006
NDP renews calls for a national pharmacare program - Friday September 22, 2006
Conservatives cannot continue to ignore health priorities: Priddy
OTTAWA – NDP Health Critic Penny Priddy (Surrey North) welcomed yesterday’s National Pharmaceuticals Strategy progress report — and urged the Conservative government to implement the report’s recommendations immediately.
“This report echoes what the NDP has said for years,” said Priddy. “It’s time to build a national, universal drug plan that will promote better health for Canadians without breaking the bank.”
The progress report summarizes the work of the federal/provincial/territorial Ministerial Task Force, appointed in 2004 to develop and implement a national drug strategy. Among the group’s recommendations is a call for catastrophic drug coverage to help Canadians with expensive prescriptions.
“Now that Stephen Harper has dropped wait times from his government’s priority list, I hope the Minister of Health will at least try to make progress in this equally-important area that the NDP campaigned for during the last federal election,” said Priddy.
NDP leader Jack Layton first called for catastrophic drug coverage during the 2004 campaign, as a first step toward establishing a national pharmacare program. Priddy said today her party is committed to Tommy Douglas’ vision of comprehensive, universal coverage for all medical expenses — not just hospital costs.
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 1:34 AM 
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