Universal PharmaScare vs PharmaCare

PharmaSCARE not Pharmacare.

Canadian politicians have been promising some mode of publicly-delivered pharmacare for some time.

Even since the dawn of universal medicine in the 1960s.

I’m a conceptual level, I’m in.

However, when it comes to the practical economic considerations behind it, I’m not too sure. I just don’t trust the implementation.

Pharmaceuticals have become vastly overpriced and the leaders of various for-profit companies have been paying themselves ENORMOUS bonuses, salaries and other perks just for simply checking in.

I’m not really keen on funneling vast sums of public money into the pockets of these folks until we have a VERY clear understanding of the costing behind the components of pharmacare and the resulting pharmaceuticals.

My hunch is that the politicians – most of whom spend more time meeting high-paid pharmaceutical lobbyists than they do meeting the average voter – will not insist on some kind of ‘audit’ or investigation of the true costs associated with public pharmacare.

Instead, this will be the one last massive cash grab / bonus handout to ageing Baby Boomers, the generation of people for whom ‘universal’ is synonymous.

Hands out. From cradle to grave.

Yes, politicians will just plow ahead with this sense of blissful ignorance, pretending that pharma companies have the best intentions when it comes to the public good.

(please note my *hint* of sarcasm).

If this is going to happen, I would stick to a basic requirement that should happen when any level of government recruit the services of a private company: they are forced to open the books, if only if it’s to a group of bureaucrats that can evaluate the costs and benefits, at which point the public can identify if we’re getting screwed or not.

And as I write, this, I know that the answer to such a demand would be puffed up indignation with a pretense that their ‘competition’ might be able to see or assess their background numbers.

As a ‘younger’ voter (I’m in my 50s now), I would much rather we make the investment in permanent infrastructure that all future generations can enjoy: facilities, hospitals, buildings that tend to the care and kindness of our seniors.