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Sylvia Orgias, Alex Smith, Draco Anderson, Gavin Jones, Winston Frederick and Khaleeq Abdul-Rahman

This week’s question: The Ontario government announced last week in its budget that it will provide free prescription drugs to young people up to age 25.The medicines will be provided to everyone in that age group regardless of their income or their parents’ income.

Should  free prescriptions drugs be provided to low income people of all age groups?

Sylvia Orgias

Retired Manager Ontario Court of Justice

Well I think it’s good that they have benefits for people under 25. They are just coming into the system, getting out of college. I have a grand-daughter in post-secondary and she works part-time and pays her way through school and I admire that, it’s hard to pay school fees with no real job. So I think people that age could do with the assistance, they do need it. It would be great if they could share the goodies between the young and lower-income but I think it’s good what they’re doing.

Alex Smith    Computer Technician    Coreio

Yes, I think they should give free prescriptions to people of lower income. Some people from lower income families may have jobs, but they might not have benefits like health insurance offered by the companies they work for, so they have very little access to prescriptions. If companies can’t offer employees those kind of benefits, it would be great if the government could provide it, so they have it somewhere and have access to affordable healthcare.

Draco Anderson  Lifestyle & Street Photographer  Valour Magazine

Yeah when it comes to that, I think what they have set up is okay so far. I used to live in New York and healthcare was not affordable like it is in Canada. It’s expensive to just go into a walk-in clinic, there are hefty payments for everything. I think right now healthcare is pretty affordable for everyone compared to there or even Puerto Rico and Jamaica. I only think it would be good if it’s a child that has to be taken into the hospital, the bills would be expensive but overall, Canada has a good system.

Gavin Jones  Communications Specialist  Toronto, Ontario

I guess that would work but it really depends. They would have to create the proper statistics and research to see if it would help that demographic to have free prescriptions, what kind of illnesses low-income communities face, and the amount of resources they have available to provide that kind of coverage. But I also think it’s good that every youth is getting free prescriptions.

Winston Frederick Musician/Musical Instructor Toronto, Ontario

Today people under 25 are struggling; they are probably just out of school and getting their first jobs so it’s not a bad thing that they are given free prescriptions. Low-income families need a boost too, because everything is costing so much more and employers are giving less benefits but wanting more from employees since the population is increasing and jobs are in demand. But I think it’s great that people starting out are at least getting a boost, but definitely low-income families need help to offset the costs of living.

Khaleeq Abdul-Rahman  Sales Associate,  Wirelesswave

No, the money should be given to people 25 and under because they may need the prescriptions to get their start in life. Like people with mental health issues, if they can’t have access to prescriptions, how will they even start their lives? If someone has ADHD and can’t focus they can’t even finish school and have no foundation to start their career and life. Giving free prescriptions to people of that age group actually gives them the tools to succeed in school and generate an income so they don’t have to rely on it later on.