Pharmacare at risk

Opinion

The federal Pharmacare plan appears to be in jeopardy.

In the spring election, Mark Carney promised that he would protect Pharmacare and other valued health care services if he won — contrasting his commitment to protect health care with the cuts that Canadians could expect if they elected Pierre Poilievre. It worked, and Canadians gave the Liberals another term with Carney at the helm.

Now in power, the Carney government seems to be backtracking from this promise. As Canada faces unprecedented economic threats from the United States’ trade policy, Pharmacare is being increasingly framed as a luxury we cannot afford.

But Pharmacare is health care. Access to prescription drugs is life saving and medically necessary, not something that’s simply ‘nice to have’ in times of plenty.

Manitoba was the first province to sign onto the federal Pharmacare plan. It’s a deal that’s worth over $200 million in federal funding. That’s a lot of money that provides a lot of help to Manitobans who need it.

Still, the current federal Pharmacare plan is far from perfect. It’s limited in its coverage, typically only applying to diabetes treatments and contraceptives. In Manitoba, due to the provincial government’s leadership, the plan also covers hormone replacement therapies.

As important as it is, this limited coverage was only meant to be the first step in developing the federal Pharmacare plan.

In this first phase, the federal government committed to signing deals with all the provinces and territories to develop a truly national Pharmacare system. The past federal government set aside $1.5 billion for this initial phase of the program. So far, only Manitoba, PEI, BC, and the Yukon have signed on.

Establishing a universal, single-payer Pharmacare plan across the country was always supposed to be the second phase of the federal Pharmacare deal. The new federal health minister is now saying that this is a different government, with a different set of priorities and circumstances.

The Liberals claim they will protect the existing deals, but with so few provinces and territories signed on, the whole program could be at risk of being eliminated. Even if the established deals do hold, there is little chance of expanding Pharmacare to offer universal coverage if the federal government is no longer committed to completing the first phase of the program.

This is an issue of fairness. It is about adherence to the letter and spirit of the Canada Health Act (CHA). The CHA establishes that all Canadians deserve a common standard of health care services, regardless of which province they live in. A deal that only includes three provinces and one territory doesn’t meet that important benchmark. As it currently stands, the federal Pharmacare plan is neither universal nor comprehensive, with access to the program determined by your postal code, not your medical needs.

If they are willing to backtrack on their commitment to truly protect Pharmacare for all Canadians, what else will the Carney Liberals try and push through in the name of defending against Trump’s tariffs and the economic upheavals they bring with them? Are federal health transfers next on the list of broken promises? What about the Canadian Dental Care Plan?

In these challenging times, with much talk of nation- building projects, we must ask ourselves: what kind of nation-building are we investing in?

Why is universal health care — so prized by Canadians — not a fundamental plank of this government’s planned response to Trump and his threats to Canadian sovereignty?

No one is denying that things are tough right now. The cost of living continues to rise. Tariff threats from the United States are becoming realities and jeopardizing the livelihoods of many Canadians. Now more than ever, with so much economic uncertainty and risk of job losses, people need to be able to depend on the public health care system.

Manitoba has a Pharmacare deal, for now. But it will take leadership and political will to keep the existing program intact and to push for its full expansion into a system that offers all Canadians universal prescription drug coverage.

Noah Schulz is the provincial director of the Manitoba Health Coalition.