Recently the government said that Canada will cover the full cost of contraception for women, as it highlighted the first part of a major health care reform. In Toronto, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the government will pay for the most commonly used methods to avoid pregnancy, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants, or the day-after pill, for the nine million Canadian women of reproductive age.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on X, which was formerly known as Twitter that women should be free to choose the contraceptives, they need without cost getting in the way. So, we’re hoping to make contraceptives free.
The biggest development of Canada’s healthcare system in years
This statement fleshes out the first part of a bill revealed in February that, once it’s completed, it would mark the biggest expansion of Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system in years. This new regime will also cover the cost of diabetes medication for 3.7 million Canadians. The cost of the new system and the timing of the launch have not been declared. To the program, more drugs will be added as it is rolled out over the coming years.
According to a recent OECD report using 2021 data, Canada spends more per capita on medications than all but three member countries – Japan, Germany, and the United States. The government must now win the approval of Canada’s provinces, which administer healthcare, for this new system. Quebec and Alberta have already mentioned that they would opt out.
The pharma care plan – as it is called locally – follows protracted negotiations between Trudeau’s Liberal minority government and a small leftist faction in parliament. Until the fall of 2025, The New Democratic Party agreed to prop up the Liberals, only under one condition that is only if the government immediately launched the drug program.
