NURS 4516 - Week 11: Discussion Board Posts on Pharmacare & Govt.

This assignment consists of two discussion posts for a NURS 4516 course. The first post addresses the Liberal government's request for sweeping powers, analyzing its positive and negative implications, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential financial mismanagement. The second post explores the pharmacare debate, arguing for a provincial pharmacare plan over a national one, citing provincial healthcare responsibilities, accessibility, affordability, and the need for stakeholder support. The author references several scholarly articles to support their arguments. The assignment fulfills the requirement of participating in two discussion activities, answering the questions and providing well-researched arguments for each topic.

Running head: POST
Post
Name
ID
Course
Unit
Lecturer
Date

2
POST
Post one
Question: what do you think of Liberal government wanting these sweeping powers until
December 31, 2021?
From the piece of legislation that government is expected to bring for parliament debate on
Tuesday, the federal Liberals seems to be supporting the proposes to grant them the sweeping
authority to borrow, change taxes and spend money without parliamentary approval up to 31st
December 2021. However, from my personal point of view, this backing have negative and
positive implication. On the positive side, it seems that the Liberal government see that COVID-
19 pandemic could go beyond the year 2021 and if granted these powers, Lee & Choi, (2019)
said that the cabinet would have powers to borrow and spend money in response to this
pandemic without consulting the parliament. The opposition seems to be controlling the house
to some extent, therefore passing financial bills needs the support of the opposition. However,
the government see that it may fail to pass such bills without the support of the opposition
members.
On the other side, Pempel, (2018) stated that this bill may give the cabinet an opportunity to
siphon public money. The reason behind is that, they will not be accountable to the parliament.
They can assign funds and increase taxes according to their wish. Therefore, the money might
not address the real economic issues of Canadians. The outbreak of the corona virus have
resulted to the loss of more than 300,000 jobs in Canada and therefore all the financial plan
should be addressing the situation.
Post two
Pharmacare: stop and think

3
POST
Question: should Canada have a national or provincial pharmacare plan? Why?
The best pharmacare for Canada is the provincial pharmacare. The first reason is that provision
of health care is a provincial responsibility and not federal. Therefore, when Canada implements
a national program, it will be an objection to already existing system in the provincial
governments. Secondly, Hajizadeh & Edmonds, (2020) stated that medicine is one of the costly
items in Canada and the low income families are going without the prescription. It is therefore
important to have a system that is accessible and affordable to the Canadian families. Having a
provincial pharmacare is the best option since the population in the provinces is manageable as
opposed to going nation wise. However, the system needs support from all the stakeholders
including the national government. For instance, the provincial system need funding from the
federal government.
There can be specific health insurance companies in the provinces. These companies should be
recognized by the government. The tax system in Canada should support the system. The cost is
shared by all members in the province. Hartmann et al, (2018) said that the rich can also support
the poor. Many people still do not trust the Liberal government on implementing the pharmacare
program especially the poor. They feel that they can still end up missing the program and that is
why the provincial pharmacare is the best. Apart from that, the best pharmacare should cover all
the necessary pharmaceuticals regardless of the individual and that can be implemented with the
provincial pharmacare program.

4
POST
References
Hajizadeh, M., & Edmonds, S. (2020). Universal pharmacare in Canada: a prescription for equity
in healthcare. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 9(3), 91-95.
Hartmann, E., Davidson, A., & Alwani, K. (2018). Prescribing Federalism: The
Intergovernmental Implications of a National Pharmacare Program. Mowat Centre for
Policy Innovation.
Lee, D., & Choi, K. (2019). Comparison of regulatory frameworks of environmental risk
assessments for human pharmaceuticals in EU, USA, and Canada. Science of The Total
Environment, 671, 1026-1035.
Pempel, T. J. (2018). Between pork and productivity: the collapse of the Liberal Democratic
Party. In Critical Readings on the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan (pp. 1291-1319).
Brill.