First federal budget to include pharmacare tabled in Parliament
In a historic first, the federal budget includes funding for pharmacare: $1.5 billion over five years.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said in her Budget speech to the House of Commons on April 16, 2024, “We’ve introduced legislation to deliver the first phase of national pharmacare, which will provide universal coverage for many diabetes medications and make contraceptives free—ensuring every Canadian woman can freely choose the contraceptive that works best for her, not just the only one she can afford.”
The government’s messaging on pharmacare focused on the ability of free contraceptives to impact positively the lives of women, making a thinly veiled reference to U.S. laws rolling back access to abortion services.
“Free contraceptives are central to a woman’s right to control her own body. That is a fundamental woman’s right. It is a fundamental human right,” Freeland said. “Women in other countries—our friends, our neighbours—are losing their right to control their own bodies. We will not let that happen here.”
Key Measures in Budget 2024
Launching the new National Pharmacare Plan with $1.5 billion over five years. This first phase will ensure the effective roll-out of pharmacare, while providing immediate support for the health care needs of women and covering lifesaving diabetes medication. Free contraception will ensure every woman has the ability to choose the contraception that works best for her, no matter the cost.
Budget 2024: Fairness for every generation
As the Finance Minister noted, the Pharmacare Act, Bill C-64 was introduced by Health Minister Mark Holland on February 29, ending months of negotiations between his party and the NDP.
The NDP ensured that the Pharmacare Act explicitly adopted a single-payer model as described by the landmark 2019 study by Dr. Eric Hoskins, with Bill C-64 stating the federal government will, “provide universal, single-payer, first-dollar coverage — for specific prescription drugs and related products intended for contraception or the treatment of diabetes.”
Budget 2024 reiterated the legislation’s single-payer approach: “the federal government’s intent to work with provinces and territories to provide universal, single-payer coverage for a number of contraception and diabetes medications.”
However, some experts were surprised the $1.5 billion in pharmacare funding is spread out over five years and wondered whether this was sufficient to provide enough incremental funding to provinces for both classes of drugs named in Bill C-64: contraception and diabetes medications.
For instance, British Columbia estimated the cost of providing just one of the classes of medications, contraceptives, to everyone in the province of 5.6 million people would be about $40 million per year.
In a powerful joint statement following the introduction of the Pharmacare Act, Canadian Health Coalition leaders called on the government to provide adequate funding and accountability measures, in accordance with the principles of the Canada Health Act.
At the time of writing, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has not announced whether his party will support the Budget, saying he wants to speak with the Prime Minister first about other budget measures the NDP has concerns over. Should his party not vote for the budget, the minority Liberal government would fall, precipitating an election and the end of the Pharmacare Act.
