I want to move to prescription drugs. I want to read a passage:
Prescription drugs.... Our current system provides full coverage for institutional care, including all drugs administered during a hospital stay. Once patients go home, however, they are not guaranteed public coverage for medically necessary drugs. Although some public coverage is provided for specific groups and situations, prescription drugs have yet to be fully incorporated into provincial health insurance schemes. Many Canadians have limited drug coverage through their employers, but a full 12 percent of Canadians have no coverage at all for prescription drugs. This situation is plainly inconsistent with the values upon which Canadian medicare is based. It is both unfair and illogical to guarantee access to medical diagnosis but not to the associated treatment. Neither does it make economic sense. Those who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions tend only to get sicker and require more costly treatment later from the public system.... Public coverage of medically necessary prescription drugs, as recommended by the National Forum on Health, would not only ensure universal access to treatment, it would also reduce the amount of money that Canadians are already spending on drugs....