Health Minister Mark Holland said Friday it was “absolutely possible” the federal government could reach a pharmacare agreement with all states by spring.
“I’m not saying this is going to be easy,” Holland told the G7 health ministers’ meeting in Ancona, Italy. “It was incredibly difficult to get this bill adopted in the House and passed in the Senate.”
Bill C-64, which lays the groundwork for the Universal Pharmacare Plan, passed the Senate on Thursday night and received Royal Assent shortly after to become Canadian law.
The legislation would allow the government to enter into agreements with states and territories to cover diabetes and contraceptives as part of the public health system.
Mr Holland said talks with the states were ongoing and “very positive” and the Dutch government was “in a position to announce an agreement in the near future”.
In February, Alberta Health Minister Adriana Lagrange said she was unhappy with the bill negotiated between the Liberals and NDP as part of the Supply and Confidence Agreement.
At the time, Lagrange said Alberta already had “robust” coverage of medicines through programs such as Alberta Blue Cross, and that Ottawa would rather give Alberta per capita funding to strengthen its own programs. said.
“Give me the dollar,” said Mr. Lagrange. “Instead of adding more bureaucracy, let us strengthen the programs we actually have today.”
‘Canadians want it to happen’: Netherlands
Holland said the spring timeline remains realistic based on previous working relationships with local officials.
“I say this [health minister] “I think I was able to have a tremendous amount of conversation with Everett Hindley and Adriana LaGrange in Saskatchewan about what we have in common and what we can do together,” Holland said.
“If you have that spirit, I think it’s absolutely possible to make this happen, and I think Canadians want it to happen, because this gap in the health care system has to be closed. I think everyone understands that.”
Holland said there may be disagreements between the federal government and the provinces on how to provide people with medicines, but there is disagreement about Canadians’ need for diabetes medications and contraceptives. He said there was no difference.
The federal government has already signed a memorandum of understanding with British Columbia, which Holland said outlines a future agreement but does not go into specifics.
“The memorandum of understanding with British Columbia was really essential and very important,” Holland said. “This helped the Senate understand exactly how these deals would survive, and it helped Canadians understand how they would fare.”
The first step towards a broader pharmacare system
In British Columbia, the provincial government already covers oral contraceptives, so federal funding for those products would instead be used to cover women’s hormone therapy.
The Pharmacare Act is intended to be the first step in a broader pharmacare system that will be expanded to include other medicines in the coming years.
Canadians are set to go to the polls sometime next year, with Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poièvre expressing opposition to a proposed single-payer universal drug plan and giving Canadians their own private drug plan. They argued that it would force them to abandon the
In February, federal officials told reporters at a background briefing that the government does not know how much this first phase of the pharmacare program will cost and that the final price will be determined by states and territories. A decision will only be made after negotiations.
When questioned, Mr. Holland estimated the cost of providing diabetes drugs and contraceptives at $1.5 billion.