A new survey showed that most Canadians do not consider pharmacare their top priority as the Liberals and NDP discuss a future national drug plan.The survey revealed that when people were asked about their top two healthcare concerns, only 18% of those surveyed said that the government should focus on making a new, universal, single-payer drug plan.Increasing funding to reduce surgical wait times (36%), more long-term care homes (32%), and expanding mental health services (30%) received higher support."All of that comes before having a universal single-payer drug plan," said Christian Bourque, executive vice president of Leger."It's not at the top of Canadians' priority list."As part of their agreement with the NDP, the Liberals pledged to approve pharmacare legislation, which would lay the groundwork for a nationwide drug plan, by the end of 2023.The survey revealed that 53% of the people surveyed were unaware of the government's pharmacare plans.In the agreement, the NDP stated they would support the Liberal minority government during key House of Commons votes in exchange for progress on NDP priorities, such as national pharmacare and dental care programs.However, the two parties could not agree on the bill's wording before the House of Commons adjourned for the Christmas holidays and set a new deadline of March 1.The primary issue is the NDP's universal, single-payer system requirement. The model recommended by Canada's advisory council on implementing national pharmacare back in 2019.Leger conducted a web survey of 1,622 Canadians from Friday to Sunday. Online surveys cannot have a margin of error assigned to them because they are not considered truly random samples.
