The evidence is clear: universal pharmacare saves lives. Ontario needs to act
- Robin Lennox
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Dec. 10, 2025
By Robin Lennox and Adil Shamji Contributors
Robin Lennox is MPP (NDP) for Hamilton Centre. Adil Shamji is MPP (Liberal) for Don Valley East. Both are physicians with experience caring for Ontarians.
Across Ontario, too many people are making impossible medical choices. Ontarians are splitting pills, skipping doses, or going without heat or food to afford life-saving medication. It is a quiet crisis that exposes a glaring gap in our universal health care system: prescription drugs are still not universally covered.
Convened by Canadian Doctors for Medicare, we’ve joined a multi-party group of elected representatives from Ontario, who also know what it’s like to work in our health care system. We are calling on Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to sign a bilateral agreement with Ottawa and bring the benefits of pharmacare to our province.
The province should waste no more time. In October 2024, the federal government’s Pharmacare Act received royal assent, setting the stage for universal coverage of contraception and diabetes medications.
But for Ontarians to benefit, our provincial government must sign a bilateral agreement with Ottawa. So far, British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon have already done so.
Ontario, has not. Ford and Jones have said that the government is “prepared to work collaboratively” yet when questioned recently, Jones acknowledged that there’s been no progress since those remarks.
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