Health policy
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To describe recent changes and identify emergent trends in public drug benefit policies in Canada from 2000 to 2010. ⋯ Universal income-based catastrophic coverage appears to be emerging as an implicit national standard for provincial pharmacare. However, due to the variation and high level of patient cost-sharing required under these programs, convergence on this model does not equate to substantial progress towards expanding coverage or reducing interprovincial disparities. Leverage of federal spending power to promote standards for public drug coverage is necessary to uniformly protect Canadians against high drug costs.
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To analyze the characteristics of inpatient medicines placed on the list of innovative high-cost medicines funded in addition to DRG-based payment, and to identify whether they really are innovative and/or high-cost. ⋯ The list of innovative and high-cost medicines contains medicines other than innovative and high-cost medicines. Stricter criteria for placing medicines on this list should be considered in order to limit the increase in expenditure.
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The objectives of this study were to identify: perceptions regarding underuse and characteristics of generic medicines; patients' attitudes towards drug substitution and pharmacists' attitudes towards substitution recommendation. ⋯ More information should be given to patients preferably by doctors and pharmacists. Prescription should be encouraged and experience promoted.