ER doctor sees harm inflicted on people waiting for pharmacare

Toronto emergency physician Dr. Bernard Ho shared his personal experience treating patients who are suffering because the government has failed to fulfill its promise for national universal pharmacare.

Writing in the influential Hill Times this week, he said:

“I’m standing in my crowded emergency department watching a man I know struggle to breathe. He’s wheezing, pale, and clutching his chest. An assessment and chest X-ray confirm the diagnosis: another exacerbation of his congestive heart failure caused by a lack of adherence to medications. When I ask why he hasn’t been taking his pills, his answer is always the same: ‘Doc, you know I can’t afford them.’”

The Carney government may be backsliding on its promise to protect its new program to provide free contraceptives and diabetes medications to patients, and that leaves Dr. Ho’s patients without hope of ever benefiting from publicly paid-for prescription medication.

“As an emergency physician, I treat the downstream effects of policy failures every day. Canadians like to believe we have comprehensive universal health care coverage, but it’s unfortunately not true,” wrote Dr. Ho. “We have universal access to doctors’ clinics and hospitals, and we have comprehensive coverage of the medically necessary services they provide, but not to the medications that keep people out of both.”

Dr. Ho says that while some provinces offer partial drug plans for seniors, lower-income people, or those on social assistance, these programs are often burdened by complex eligibility rules and co-pays, leaving many patients caught in the cracks.

“From the front lines, I see how pharmacare isn’t just about equity; it’s about dignity. I watch seniors decide between groceries and blood-pressure pills. I see new immigrants ration insulin. I’ve had to prescribe less effective but insurance-covered medications because the best drug wasn’t available through the patient’s plan. In 2025, in a country as wealthy and compassionate as Canada claims to be, this is cruel.

Controversial comments by Canada’s new Health Minister Marjorie Michel in New Brunswick this summer cast doubt on whether the Carney government will keeps its promise to protect pharmacare – a key plank of the Liberal election campaign. Only four jurisdictions were able to sign funding agreements with the federal government before the election (B.C., Yukon, Manitoba, and P.E.I.), leaving four out of five Canadians without public coverage for contraceptives and diabetes treatments, including insulin.

Dr. Ho has a prescription of his own for Prime Minister Carney.

“The Liberal government once held up national pharmacare as the next great chapter in Canadian health policy. Backing away now isn’t just a policy pivot, it’s a broken promise with real-life consequences. As someone who sees those consequences every day in the ER, I urge Prime Minister Mark Carney and our leaders to act with urgency and vision. The next patient who walks through my doors shouldn’t have to pay the price of political hesitation with their health, their dignity, or their life.”