Prescription Drugs In Canada

2 Pages 459 Words

The American dollar outweighs Canada’s in value. That being the case, why does Canada get more mileage out of their money when it comes to prescription medication? Should the government force pharmaceutical companies to lower prices on prescription drugs like they do in Canada?
The issue is not simply that black and white, obviously nobody wants to spend more money than they have to on anything, but does Canada’s universal
health insurance coverage truly work? Those against Canada’s government controlled drug prices object that the program is bound to fail. A writer for the
Washington Post writes that “Canada has un-managed care” and that “it will only be a matter of time before the demand for medical services overtakes
the willingness of voters to pay for it.” Another reporter for ABC News stated that Canada’s system was “inefficient and expensive” and drastically
cut the Ontario health-care budget.
Countering those arguments is easy to do with facts. Both reporters failed to tell the complete truth in their articles. The Washington Post writer Steven Pearlstein did not mention that Canada spent much less of their income on health care than the United States did. Nor did he point out that polls indicated that Canadian voters wanted to spend more money on health care. Neither point supports Pearlstein’s flawed logic. As for being “inefficient and expensive”, the universal health insurance policy
means that every Canadian citizen is insured. In 1998, Canada insured all of its citizens for $2,250 per person. The United States only insured about 84
percent of their citizens at a cost of $4,270 per person. It is difficult to argue that a health plan which insures all its citizens at nearly half
the cost of one that does not is inefficient. It seems that Canada is setting an example that this country should follow. Furthermore, the current prescription prices make it difficult for senior citizens t...