A community meeting to discuss improving prescription drug coverage in Canada will be held at the Red Deer Legion Monday at 7 p.m.
Hosted by Red Deer & District Labour Council, the pharmacare meeting will look at developing a national program to provide drug coverage for every Canadian.
“The Canadian Labour Congress started a campaign in September of 2017 regarding pharmacare called The Plan for Everyone. They’ve been crisscrossing the country over the last little while holding town hall meetings,” said Patricia Couture, executive member of the Red Deer & District Labour Council, Friday.
She said right now there’s a patchwork coverage across Canada.
“Pharmacare would hopefully fill in those gaps.”
Recently, the federal budget included the creation of an advisory committee, headed by former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins, to study the implementation of national pharmacare, and a parliamentary committee recommended that prescription medications be publicly funded across Canada under a universal pharmacare program.
Presentations will be made by Alberta Friends of Medicare executive director Sandra Azocar, Alberta Federation on Union Retirees president Lucien Royer, and Canadian Labour Congress Alberta representative Heather Erlen.
The meeting at Red Deer Legion, at 2810 Bremner Ave., runs until 8:30 p.m. with an opportunity to ask questions. To register, visit www.aplanforeveryone.ca/reddeer.