ER doctor sees harm inflicted on people waiting for pharmacare
- Steven Staples
- Aug 31
- 1 min read
August 27, 2025 By Steven Staples
Canadian Health Coalition
“From the front lines, I see how pharmacare isn’t just about equity; it’s about dignity.”- Dr. Bernard Ho
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.”
