Certainly, in the context of the pandemic, many Canadians are receiving drug insurance through their employers. With the big disruption in employment over the course of the pandemic, in particular in the sectors where there are often more women than men, not only are you seeing a certain sector of the population that is just not covered for drug insurance, but you are also seeing another section of the population whose drug coverage may well have been interrupted during the pandemic.
When we look at this as an economy-wide problem, there can be substantial savings from a national pharmacare plan. One of the challenges, of course, is that the savings don't necessarily all go to the same place. The provinces might see savings from pharmacare, because they would see reduced health care costs, whereas it might be the federal government that pays for it. I think that sorting out the jurisdictional issues has, unfortunately, really retarded the development of a national pharmacare plan that, in an aggregate sense, would likely lead to savings, except that those savings will go to different places from who pays for it.
Certainly, in the context of a national pandemic, it highlights the need for coordinated action on health care issues generally in public health, but also certainly on things like drug coverage.