Health minister says he hopes some provinces will have pharmacare plan in place by end of 2024

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland says he hopes some provinces will be able to have the govern‐ ment's new pharmacare plan in place by the end of the year.

In an interview on Rose‐ mary Barton Live that aired Sunday, Holland said that during his conversations with provincial colleagues, some had expressed major enthu‐ siasm for the program un‐ veiled this week that would cover diabetes medication and contraception.

"It's going to take time to negotiate these with the provinces," he told CBC chief political correspondent Rose‐ mary Barton. "We have a couple of provinces who are super eager, want to be on the front lines, want to do this right away. And that, at the same time, allows us to go and negotiate with the other provinces to get this rolling.

"We want to see, for early provinces, folks getting their diabetes medicine covered and contraceptives - we want to see that, hopefully, even by the end of this year."

WATCH | Breaking down the new pharmacare pro‐ posal:

The federal pharmacare program is a product of the Liberal-NDP supply-and-con‐ fidence agreement, and in its initial phase would cover dia‐ betes medication and contra‐ ception for all Canadians. The government will look to expand coverage in the fu‐ ture. But implementing the plan will first require a fund‐ ing agreement with the provinces.

Alberta and Quebec have both already signalled that they do not want to partici‐ pate in the system.

"Give us the dollars," Al‐ berta Health Minister Adri‐ ana LaGrange said in a news conference Monday.

"Allow us to enhance the programs we actually have now, rather than create more bureaucracy."

Holland said the federal government and Alberta have been able to work effec‐ tively across a range of issues and he was optimistic they would also work through the pharmacare deal.

Ontario, for its part, has stayed neutral so far, saying the province is waiting to see more details.

"We need to see and ass‐ ess what the federal govern‐ ment is proposing and how it matches, conflicts, works with the Ontario system that is already here," Health Min‐ ister Sylvia Jones said Thurs‐ day. Saskatchewan also said it would wait to see more in‐ formation about the pro‐ gram.

WATCH | Health minis‐ ter discusses new pharma‐ care program:

The program, as currently proposed, is set to cost around $1.5 billion, Holland has said previously, but he noted it could change de‐ pending on negotiations with the provinces.

In Sunday's interview, Hol‐ land also commented on the future shape of the pharma‐ care program, describing a choice between a system in which the new program com‐ pletely displaces existing in‐ surance schemes, or one in which it fills some gaps.

"What we're trying to get at is what's the most effi‐ cient, efficacious and effec‐ tive way to get everybody covered and to make sure that coverage gets the health outcomes we want," he told Barton.

"The NDP has been very clear, they want the singlepayer, universal, totally paidfor by government, total dis‐ placement of insurance com‐ panies," Holland said, while he had argued in favour of studying the first iteration of the program to see what was most effective.

"This debate has been too philosophical, too academic," he said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said this week his party would exam‐ ine the pharmacare legisla‐ tion. During a news confer‐ ence Thursday, did not an‐ swer questions about whether he would dismantle the program if the Conserva‐ tives take office.