National drug insurance program | Quebec awaits Ottawa firmly

(Ottawa) The Minister of Health of Quebec, Christian Dubé, is sending an unequivocal warning to the Trudeau government: there is no question that Quebec will leave the field open to Ottawa to create a drug insurance plan on its territory.

The only option available to the minority Liberal government, if it is determined to create such a program in the rest of the country, as it must do if it wants to continue to obtain the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP ) in the House of Commons, is to offer full financial compensation without conditions to Quebec, said Minister Dubé in an interview with The Press.

Mr. Dubé said he gave the same warning orally to his federal counterpart, Mark Holland, three weeks ago during a meeting in Montreal. He also reminded him that Quebec has already had a drug insurance program for almost three decades.

While the Trudeau government’s intentions become clearer and a bill aimed at laying the foundations of a universal drug insurance plan across the country must be tabled in the Commons on Thursday, Mr. Dubé held to reaffirm Quebec’s position loud and clear.

“We still have constitutional rights,” Minister Dubé insisted in an interview. “What we want is full and unconditional financial compensation. »

After several weeks of negotiations, the Trudeau government and the NDP managed to resolve their differences last Friday over the broad outlines of a bill aimed at laying the foundations for a universal drug insurance plan, thereby ruling out the possibility of a call to the polls in 2024.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh demanded that such a bill be tabled by Friday the 1st at the latest.^er March, failing which the agreement initialed between him and Justin Trudeau to ensure the political survival of the Liberal government until June 2025 no longer held.

Refusal in Alberta, indifference in Ontario

In this bill, everything indicates that Ottawa will commit to undertaking negotiations with the provinces during the year. In the immediate future, he will propose paying for two categories of medications, namely contraceptives and most medications intended to treat types 1 and 2 diabetes. According to Jagmeet Singh, this bill will constitute “the first big step” towards the creation of a universal drug insurance plan.

Behind the scenes, the NDP affirmed that Quebec should have the right to withdraw with full compensation. But Minister Holland has not gone that far.

In an interview, Minister Dubé described Ottawa’s decision to move forward as a “strange political choice,” despite the lack of interest from several provinces. Like Quebec, Alberta has indicated that it wants nothing to do with the federal approach, while Ontario has also expressed the same indifference in the past. The bill for such a national program could reach $13.4 billion per year for Ottawa and the provinces, according to calculations by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

“Not only are they refusing to give us the money we asked for for federal health transfers, but they want to interfere in an area of ​​Quebec jurisdiction. The federal government knows very well that this is an area of ​​provincial jurisdiction. We have already had our own drug insurance program since 1997. That’s almost 30 years. We also probably have the widest range of what is covered of all the Canadian provinces,” explained the minister.

He pointed out that 45% of the Quebec population is entitled to drug insurance through the public plan and that 55% of Quebecers have private insurance.

“No matter what coverage you have, the same list of medications is prescribed. So, we are aware that it is probably the best plan in Canada at the moment. »

Disagree with Jagmeet Singh

Christian Dubé also protested against the comments of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who said Monday that Quebec had slashed its health budget. He also invited the leader of the NDP to redo his homework.

On Monday, Mr. Singh also indicated that the Quebec government is not investing “enough in health care” and, according to him, this explains why there are “crises in several hospitals.”

“I object to this. Since 2017-2018, the health budget has increased from $40 billion to $59 billion. That’s almost a 50% increase in six years. Without saying that these are falsehoods, I think he should check his figures,” said Mr. Dubé.