What does the election mean for pharmacare?

​This Monday the Liberals won a minority government and Justin Trudeau is heading back to Ottawa as Prime Minister. What can we expect from this new minority government when it comes to national pharmacare?

The Liberals, the NDP and the Green party all promised national pharmacare on the campaign trail. The NDP and the Green Party both planned to rapidly implement pharmacare starting in 2020. The Green party planned to spend $26.7 billion on national pharmacare in 2020. The Liberals had a more gradual plan. Justin Trudeau plans to follow the recommendations in the pharmacare report conducted by former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins, which estimated a cost of $15.3 billion by 2027. In 2020 the Liberal party plans to “take the critical next steps to implement national universal pharmacare so that all Canadians have the drug coverage they need at an affordable price.” These are steps the NDP and Green party are likely to support.

On Monday Canadians went out and voted. Now we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out in Ottawa for national pharmacare.