The report also calls on the federal government to provide clarity about its pharmacare policy and its plans for the future. Read: Manitoba becomes first province to join national pharmacare program with $219 million dealA 2019 report by an advisory council, chaired by Dr. Eric Hoskins, recommended that Canada create a universal single-payer pharmacare program. The NDP insisted that it wanted to see the creation of a single-payer, first-dollar, universal program to cover the cost of prescription drugs. “The issue of single-payer, universal pharmacare has been thoroughly debated in both the House of Commons and in the Senate,” he said. The first phase of the pharmacare program, launched last year, provides what the government calls “universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage” of contraceptives and some diabetes medications at little or no cost to patients.