The Easiest, Most Effective thing you can do for Universal Pharmacare

Hi everyone, Please take 30 seconds to sign an e-petition pushing for Universal Pharmacare on the Parliament of Canada website: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-959 As a registered Government of Canada website petition, THIS is the one that the government cannot ignore, and yet is lacking signatures. We need well over 10,000, and with each of you signing it today, we could make this happen. It is the most critical petition to get behind because the federal government may interpret the paucity of signees on it's own website as a lack of public interest – despite the Citizens’ Reference Panel on Pharmacare (1) and national polling (2) conveying the vast majority of Canadians supporting Universal Pharmacare. Canadians have never been so close to having this on the government’s policy agenda. Universal Pharmacare will not happen unless citizens speak up, and the most effective way to channel our collective voice is through a government e-petition; it will carry huge leverage to continue mounting public pressure. But the outcome of this e-petition could also be risky if it does not have enough signatures–the Liberals may use this as an excuse to claim a lack of public support, and thereby not move forward. The petition deadline is July 13, 2017, at 3:15 p.m. (EDT). Please sign now at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-959 to show our government that Canadians care about national Pharmacare, and spread the word! As Dr. Steve Morgan recently outlined in a Toronto Star Article https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/05/02/why-a-universal-pharmacare-plan-makes-sense-now.html, Universal Pharmacare makes sense for Canadians, because: 1. As per the World Health Organization, access to essential medicines is a human right (3) 2. Universal Pharmacare would save lives (4) 3. Universal Pharmacare would save money (5) 4. Universal Pharmacare would help Canadian businesses (6-8) Onward, Dr. Kurt Deschner (1) http://www.crppc-gccamp.ca/ (2) http://angusreid.org/prescription-drugs-canada/ (3) http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/human_rights/en/ (4) http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2012/08/08/dc12-0364 (5) http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm (6) http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/drug-costs-canada-1.3927989 (7) http://www.benefitscanada.com/benefits/health-benefits/drug-plan-waste-costs-plan-sponsors-5-1-billion-report-39934 (8) http://www.pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/en/news-and-events/consultations/current-major-consultations/rethinking-the-guidelines/discussion-paper