Quick links
pharmacare
DCHP-2 (Jul 2016)
Spelling variants:PharmaCare, Pharmacare
n. — Administration
a provincial government program created to subsidize the cost of prescription drugs.
Type: 1. Origin — Pharmacare is not a national program; each province manages its own prescription drug service, and many are simply called by other names, e.g. "New Brunswick Prescription Drug Program". Among the provinces and territories that currently use pharmacare are British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon.
Pharmacare is a portmanteau of "pharmaceutical" and "care", and was likely coined in analogy to medicare, a term used as early as 1960 to denote a national medical health insurance plan. According to internet domain searches in Chart 1, the term is most prevalent in Canada.
See also Gage-5, s.v. "pharmacare" and COD-2, s.v. "pharmacare", which mark the term "Cdn".
Pharmacare is a portmanteau of "pharmaceutical" and "care", and was likely coined in analogy to medicare, a term used as early as 1960 to denote a national medical health insurance plan. According to internet domain searches in Chart 1, the term is most prevalent in Canada.
See also Gage-5, s.v. "pharmacare" and COD-2, s.v. "pharmacare", which mark the term "Cdn".
See: medicare
Quotations
1972
But there is a better way: pharmacare. If drug costs were borne by medicare, the one insuring agency could simply refuse to recognize the high-price drugs for insurance purposes whenever cheap, effective and safe substitutes were available. It would make net savings worth many millions of dollars to society in the costs of needed drugs. And the insurance would remove one of the last unnecessary medical costs trhat burden the people of this province.
1973
THE NEW PHARMACARE PROGRAMME FOR THOSE 65 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER IS EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1974. What is Pharmacare? Pharmacare is the new prescription drug programme of the Province of British Columbia.
1978
With proper streamlining, the researchers say, that budget could be trimmed by 30 to 40 per cent to $385- or $449-million. Nevertheless, they conclude that the benefits of pharmacare or denticare are probably outweighed by the costs and suggest alternative public programs which zero in on key sections of the population.
1987
Federal and provincial benefits are linked to the old age pension. These include GIS and spouse's allowance; opportunity to defer property taxes; $28-a-year regional bus passes; pharmacare; $630 annual grant towards school taxes; SAFER (shelter aid for elderly renters); subsidies towards medicare premiums; free B.C. ferry travel on most routes, Monday through Thursday; ICBC insurance discount; income tax reduction.
1999
During the last election, the Liberals talked about major new investment in home care and pharmacare, and Health Minister Allan Rock said last year that home care was a personal priority.
But the provinces were furious that Ottawa proposed to launch a new program for which it could claim credit after unilaterally cutting transfer payments and forcing them to take the heat for hospital downsizing.
The provinces won that battle after high-sounding talk of a new social union. The upshot was that Ottawa put money back into transfer payments and stopped pushing either home care or pharmacare.
2008
A spokesman for Dion said they were unsuccessful in their attempts to reach Hughes before the decision was made public.
New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton campaigned in B.C., where he announced a national pharmacare program. The long-standing NDP policy would include transfers to the provinces to cap a patient's annual drug costs at $1,500 annually.
"This is the next stage of medicare," said Layton.
References
- COD-2
- Gage-5
Images
