SUMMARY - National Pharmacare Debate
The morning routine of Elias, a sixty-eight-year-old retired teacher living in rural Saskatchewan, is dictated by a spreadsheet on his kitchen table. His prescription for a new, high-cost diabetes medication exceeds his monthly pension surplus. He faces the agonizing calculus of rationing: skipping doses to stretch the supply or dipping into his savings, eroding the safety net he built over four decades. For Elias, the absence of universal pharmacare is not an abstract policy failure but a daily threat to his autonomy and health.