Unprecedented Access to Prescription Drugs Across This Nation

Canada will expand its publicly funded national pharmacare program to include contraception and diabetes medication as one in five Canadians is struggling to pay for prescription drugs.

“Women across the country will be able to make choices about contraception based on what’s best for their lives, not their wallets,” states the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Federal spending will increase by $1.3 billion over the next five years. Birth-control pills and intrauterine devices cost between $72 and $215 a year. Under the plan, an estimated nine million Canadian women of reproductive age will now have access to common types of contraception. The 3.7 million Canadians diagnosed with type 1 and type 2 diabetes won’t have to pay between $648 and $1,225 a year to keep their insulin at a healthy level.