EDMONTON — This morning, the Alberta NDP Opposition Caucus released a leaked copy of an internal cabinet document showing the provincial government has been working on a plan to rollback Albertans’ drug benefits. The proposal shows that an average senior couple would pay hundreds, or even thousands of dollars more per year for their medications under this new scheme, costing Albertans up to $400 million dollars more out of pocket for their prescriptions.
“At a time when Albertans are struggling under a deep affordability crisis, the provincial government is once again creating policies that see people paying more out of pocket for the essential health care they need,” said Chris Gallaway executive director of Friends of Medicare. “The leaked cabinet document lists Friends of Medicare as an ‘Expected Critic’ of the government’s proposed plan for drug coverage, suggesting that we will oppose cost increases and may say the government is cutting costs at the expense of vulnerable Albertans and their health. Well in this instance, they weren’t wrong.”
The UCP government has already announced step one of this secret plan, by increasing drug co-pays by $10 per prescription refill for seniors. This follows the previous removal of tens of thousands of Albertans from the seniors’ drug plan, cuts to vision care, charging Albertans $100 for their vaccines, and changes in the Continuing Care Act which allow for care operators to increase subsidized resident charges by up to 3.8% every year.
“During the provincial election, Danielle Smith promised over and over again that if elected, no Albertan would need to pay out of pocket for the health care that they need and that no services would be delisted. Yet once in power, her government has cost Albertans hundreds of millions of dollars in out of pocket expenses,” said Gallaway. “The government’s own leaked document admits that offloading these prescription costs onto Albertans will only make our existing health care system strain worse, leading to diminished health outcomes and added downstream costs as folks show up in our ambulances and hospitals in need of care.”
This so-called “Alberta Pharmacare” is a distortion and distraction from the plan Albertans actually need: national Pharmacare. The historic passing of a Pharmacare Act through parliament last October brought us closer than we’ve ever been to achieving universal drug coverage in Canada, with a preliminary plan for universal coverage of contraceptives and diabetes medication and devices. But rather than work in the interests of Albertans’ health and wallets, the provincial government continues to push for an opt-out from the national program.
“Albertans overwhelmingly support national Pharmacare, and they made their voices heard loud and clear in downtown Edmonton earlier this month,” said Gallaway. “But instead of listening, the Alberta government is yet again spending untold public funds on an international mega accounting firm to set our health policy. They’d rather burden Albertans than even consider working with the federal government to implement the public option, on which there is decades of research confirming cost-savings to households, employers and health care systems.”
“The UCP government needs to stop offloading health care costs onto Albertans, stop picking endless fights with Ottawa, and get on board with the national Pharmacare plan that would make access to diabetes and contraceptive medications free for all Albertans,” concluded Gallaway.
Friends of Medicare encourages Albertans to continue to speak out in support of universal Pharmacare by sending a letter to their provincial and federal representatives.
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