The federal government is considering paying for contraceptive and diabetes treatment as part of a national drug plan currently being negotiated between the NDP and the ruling Liberal Party.
CBC News spoke to a person with direct knowledge of the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly. Details were first reported by the Globe and Mail.
Talks between the two parties are ongoing, but the language of the proposed pharmacare bill has not yet been finalized.
british columbia already covers contraception For residents, Manitoba recently announced that I’m planning on doing the same thing..
Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries offer free contraceptives. In France, residents over the age of 25 are eligible for reimbursement for contraceptives.
According to the BC Diabetes Foundation, the average diabetic patient pays about $25 a day for insulin, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps.
Introducing the Pharmacare Bill was a condition the NDP set when it joined the federal Liberals in a supply and confidence agreement in 2022. The deal provides for the New Democratic Party to support a minority government with key votes in the House of Commons, preventing an early exit. Participate in elections in exchange for campaigning on NDP policy priorities.
The agreement is scheduled to last until 2025, but the shape of the Pharmacare Act appears to be a sticking point between the two parties.
The original credit supply agreement stipulated that the legislation needed to be introduced by the end of 2023. Deadline extended until March This year, officials were trying to finalize the details.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is trying to put pressure on the Liberals by threatening to pull out of the deal if the bill isn’t tabled by March 1.
“If they break the agreement, they are out of the agreement. Then they cannot expect anything from us,” Singh said on Tuesday. “We negotiate every vote at once.”
NDP health critic Don Davis said one of the final issues still unresolved in the bipartisan negotiations on pharmacare is who will pay for the drugs: private insurers, public insurers or only one. He said it involves the federal government as the price negotiator and purchaser.
The New Democratic Party is calling for a single-payer system, which would yield better results because, as the sole purchaser, the federal government could use bulk purchases to lower drug prices. claims.
The New Democratic Party claims the Liberals balked at adopting a single-payer model because of the costs, which could run into the billions of dollars.
“Historically they have not wanted to commit to single payer,” Davis said Tuesday. “Of course we have drawn a red line in the sand and we have to build that system.”
