The federal Liberals and NDP are attempting to negotiate a national pharmacare program in order to keep their political alliance alive and prevent a snap election.

Is that a sound basis for a program securing pharmaceuticals for Canadians dealing with a need for medications including significant, even life-threatening illness? Would a national pharmacare program be funded sufficiently that the newest and most effective drugs for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other serious illnesses become and/or remain available, or would a pharmacare bureaucracy be underfunded or over-regulated to the point pharmaceutical companies would not make the most recent and effective/expensive drugs available to Canada and Canadians?

Guest: Dr. Shawn Whatley. Past president of the Ontario Medical Association and author: When Politics Comes Before Patients.

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