Teresa Acheson, the president of the Yukon Federation of Labour, is speaking out on the urgent need for pharmacare legislation as the enabling federal legislation looms.

Workers and families are looking to MPs “to listen to Canadians and take immediate action to table pharmacare legislation before March 1st,” Acheson said Friday.

She called the remainder of this month a critical time for all Yukoners to add their voices calling on the government to bring in the pharmacare package it has promised.

“Canada is the only developed country in the world with a universal health care program that doesn’t include a universal prescription drug plan,” Acheson noted.

“The communities of Yukon are suffering without pharmacare, leaving symptoms untreated, resulting in higher health care costs and Canada’s highest per-capita death rates from opioids,” she said.

She’s calling for the federal government to table pharmacare legislation before March 1.

“The Liberal government has a narrow window to support pharmacare before the extended time runs out on the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) with the NDP,” she said.

“We know that Yukoners are affected by this.”

When cost is a factor, Acheson said, “Yukoners choose to skip costly medication that could prevent further illness and costly health care issues because they need to pay for housing and groceries.

“During a health care crisis, this adds unnecessary pressure on our hospitals because prescriptions are covered in the hospital.”

With an overrun health care system, Yukoners choose to go without or self-medicate,” she added.

“About one third of working Canadians don’t have employer-funded prescription drug coverage. The less you earn at work, the less likely you are to have prescription drug coverage.”

Women and young workers are less likely to have the coverage they need, she pointed out.

“Even those with drug plans are paying ever-increasing co-payments and deductibles.”

Canada needs to catch up to other developed countries, Acheson said.

“It is time to take the next bold step of implementing a universal public pharmacare program —a publicly funded and publicly delivered program that can save Canada billions of dollars.”

She is asking Yukoners to:

1. Join the Northern Health Care Matters Campaign.

2. Share their story to help the government know why pharmacare matters in the Yukon.

3. Speak up now to call on the Canadian government to deliver universal pharmacare for all Canadians.

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland said last week he has “every confidence” the government can deliver pharmacare legislation by the promised March 1 deadline.

He added the Liberals are “not pulling the fire alarm” on the CASA over the issue.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has warned there will be “repercussions” if the Liberals don’t table pharmacare framework legislation by next month.

He said he’d regard another missed deadline to mean the federal Liberals have “walked away” from the CASA.