Federal Drug Policy, And Its Correlation With The Shortage Of Drugs

Today, Canada is the only industrialized nation without a national pharmacare plan (“Campaign for a National Drug Plan” 1). Currently, each province has its own pharmacare plan and this creates differences in medication prices across the nation. Price depends on drug efficacy, how commonly the drug is used, and to what extent the provincial government decides to subsidize the drug. Overall, drug coverage in Canada depends on a person’s age, income, and the province they live in. Today, one in ten Canadians cannot afford the medications that their doctors prescribe (“Pharmacare 2020” 2). Their lack of

The ethical implications of the Canadian government funding and supporting these projects, considering current drug laws and policies, are questioned by some. People believe that the government should not participate in enabling drug use (Globe & Mail, (2011) and that zero tolerance approaches should be taken. In opposition to zero tollerance attitudes some

Shortages of prescription drugs in the United States are a serious threat to our nation’s health and safety. At first blush, this problem appears fairly simple and straight forward to solve. In reality, there is a complex web of causation with a number of root causes contributing to drug shortages. The aim of this paper is to answer the question: How do we mitigate prescription drug shortages? This discussion is written from the standpoint of advising the current presidential administration how to address this crisis. This essay begins with a discussion regarding the background of the issue. Next, the landscape, including stakeholders in this matter is identified. Following, political, social, economic, and practical factors surrounding

The Canadian government must implement an equitable national pharmacare program in which medically necessary prescription drugs are covered

In the beginning of last year my twelve year old sister was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, which is the same concept as Crohn's. Every six weeks she has to go into the hospital to get an IV drip of the chemo drug Remicade or as all the nurses call it “Liquid gold.” They call it that because every dose that the patient gets is roughly $10,000. Each and every person all have a different view on the topic, from what the problem actually is, what is causing the high rise is pharmaceutical drugs and what the right solution would be. What we do know is this is becoming a colossal issue in today's world. It mostly is seen in the United States, where there are no laws against a free market for drug pricing; or in other words there are no rules about how to price prescription drugs. The prices of prescription drugs are rising at an very alarming rate, due to the fact that there are a lot of drug shortages and the money the companies spend on making the drug are so high. There are many different solutions to help fix the issue it all depends on what your stance is on

Canada’s system is another great example of the affordability of UHC. According to the World Health Organization, check-ups, medications and surgeries are thirty to sixty percent cheaper in Canada than in the U.S. (Merino 132). Why? Well, Diane Francis, author of the National Post article “LBJ Invented Canada’s Superior Health System”, offers one explanation. Francis argues that in Canada drugs are cheaper because Canadian provinces buy the drugs in bulk through a centralized system, unlike the U.S., which makes the government programs Medicare and Medicaid buy from different sources (Merino 132). Because of the monopoly the Canadian government has on the pharmaceutical industry, the price of drugs can be manipulated by the government, making

Although Canadians were largely supportive of the proposed national pharmacare plan, most said they would be concerned if their current private plan was replaced by a national pharmacare program with less coverage, if it increased costs to governments because patients use more prescription drugs than they do now, and of the ability of governments to administer the plan efficiently and effectively - these concerns will later be covered in the ethics section (Canadian Pharmacists Association, 2015).  Many political parties, like the Liberals and NDP, have realized the significance of universal drug coverage to the point that they have included it in campaign promises for both federal and provincial elections. The NDP has even introduced a motion in the House of Commons that gives the Liberal government one year to begin negotiations with the provinces in order to implement universal pharmaceutical drug coverage for all Canadians.  Additionally, both parties’ Ontario provincial election campaigns prominently feature contrasting pharmacare plans: the NDP will offer universal coverage but is limited to 125 medications deemed essential by an independent committee with the commitment to expand the coverage over time as savings are realized, while the Liberals have introduced improvements to the Ontario Drug Plan to cover over 4,400 drugs for the province's four million children and young adults (Fraser, 2017).

Patients that are unable to follow prescriptions as ordered, related to lack of coverage, escalate stress on the health care system; increasing physician and emergency department visits, which may have been avoidable if the medications were covered for all Canadians (Lexchin, 2017). There are various socio-political barriers to implementing a universal drug coverage plan in Canada. Primarily, the federal government’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), controls prescription and non-prescription prices by making comparisons of across seven selected Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries (Tang, Ghali, & Manns, 2014). However, these OECD comparative countries have higher medication prices. In fact, four of the seven OECD countries have the most expensive prices worldwide; consequently increasing Canadian prescription pricing. According to Morgan and Boothe (2016), another barrier to universal drug coverage in Canada stems from “pharmacare’s initially low place on the policy agenda” (p. 249). Healthy public policy development requires synergy between the public, policy makers, and institutions alike. If universal drug coverage has “less attention than other health policy debates” a political change is less likely to occur (p. 251).

One important issue that plagues the Canadian health system is the affordability of prescription drugs, which arises from the medication not being covered under Canada’s current universal health care system (Parliament of Canada). The prescription drugs are either paid out of pocket, or covered a certain percentage depending on their private insurance or benefits given by their profession. For those who cannot afford the medication it causes a dilemma, choosing to take on a financial burden for the sake of their own treatment and without taking the needed treatment the disease may get worse. Since it is out-of-the-pocket the wealthy can obtain the medication, while the poor are handcuffed to do so, therefore making this a financial and an equity

Prescription drug coverage in Canada is different for every province and has evolved over time , public drug plans fund only 38.3% of the total drug expenditure in Canada in 2012 which included the non-prescribed medicines(8). Every provincial drug plan available includes patient charges .the current patchwork of Canada includes a complex, 46 federal, provincial and territorial prescription drug coverage program (6). It varies in the type and level of coverage provided throughout the country as well as in the must pay out-of-pocket amount as the part of public prescription drug plan.

specifically, I will outline our nation 's general drug history and look critically at how Congress has influenced our current ineffective drug policy. Through this analysis I hope to show that drug prohibition policies in the United States, for the most part, have failed. Additionally, I will highlight and evaluate the influences acting on individual legislators ' decisions to continue support for these ineffective policies as a more general demonstration of Congress ' role in the formation of our nation 's drug policy strategy. Finally, I will conclude this analysis by outlining the changes I feel necessary for future progress to be made. Primary among these changes are a general promotion of drug education and the elimination of our current system 's many de-legitimating hypocrisies.

Canada’s health care system “can be described as a publicly-funded, privately-provided, universal, comprehensive, affordable, single-payer, provincially administered national health care system” (Bernard, 1992, p.103). Health care in Canada is provincial responsibility, with the Canada Health act being a federal legislation (Bernard, 1992, p. 102). Federal budget cuts, has caused various problems within Medicare such as increased waiting times and lack of new technology. Another problem with Medicare is that The Canada Heath Act does not cover expenditures for prescriptions drugs. All these issue has caused individuals to suggest making Medicare privatized. Although, Canada’s health care system consists of shortcomings, our universal

As a major policy issue in the United States, the War on Drugs has been one of the most monumental failures on modern record. At a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives lost and many thousands of others ruined by untreated addiction or incarceration, America's policy orientation concerning drug laws is due for reconsideration. Indeed, the very philosophical orientation of the War on Drugs and of the current drug policy in the United States has been one of prosecution and imprisonment rather than one of decriminalization, treatment and rehabilitation. As our medical and scientific communities characterize addiction as a disease, the United States government continues to characterize this disease as a crime. And in doing so, it has created an unnecessary criminal class in the United States. The research, supplemental political cartoons and proposed research will set out to prove that stiffer drug laws will only have the impact of criminalizing countless drug addicts who might otherwise benefit substantially from rehabilitation and other treatment-based strategies. With a specific focus on the prohibition of marijuana even for medical use, and using the Toulmin model for putting forth and completing the argument, the research will set out to demonstrate the irrational

The Canada Health Act is a federal legislation enacted in 1984, delineating the terms of the Canadian universal health care system and what provinces must comply with in order to receive federal funding. It is important to point out that, although some of the funding and policies regulating the nation’s health care are provided by the federal government, it does not constitute a one-size-fits-all approach. Each of Canada’s ten provinces has the authority to regulate health care within their own jurisdiction; therefore, what’s efficient in one section of the country is not necessarily how things are done on the other side of the country. This essay focuses on general applicable principles which have been common denominators when it comes to discussing Canada’s health care system.

Drug abuse has been an ongoing issue throughout the United States. The misuse of drugs impacts every culture, age group, gender, race and social class of people. In 2012, approximately twenty-two million individuals throughout the United States were either abusing or had an addiction to alcohol and drugs (Friedman, 2014a, p. 385). Out of the twenty-two million people, four million individuals turn into being dependent or abusing marijuana (Friedman, 2014b, p. 387). Furthermore, two million were dependent on OxyContin and Vicodin, which are opioid prescription medicines (Friedman, 2014c, p. 387).