Health Minister Adrian Dix is hopeful the federal government's creation of an advisory council on options to proceed with a national pharmacare program leads to concrete action. Dix said it was disappointing there was no money in the federal budget to get started, contrasting its approach with the $105 million over three years the B.C. But Alan Cassels, a pharmacare policy researcher at UVic, is somewhat skeptical whether the federal government's committee, which has no dollars attached to it, will be able to push a national plan forward. pharmacare is a good model, I think, for a national model, much different than Quebec. "This is referred to as an advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare, not an advisory council on whether Canada should have national pharmacare," said Morgan, who heads up Canada's Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration.

Source: CBC News February 28, 2018 20:37 UTC