Alberta plans to opt out of national pharmacare program, saying it wasn’t consulted
The Liberal government and the NDP will introduce the first phase of their new national pharmacare program, however the province of Alberta has chosen to opt out of the program.
The pharmacare program will include coverage of birth control and diabetes medication and was a major part of the supply-and-confidence pact that the NDP shares with the Liberals.
Final details of the legislation have yet to be ironed out before the scheduled deadline of March 1. Still, Alberta’s Health Minister Adriana LaGrange confirmed that the province plans to opt out, in an email to Global News on Sunday.
Alberta will instead aim to obtain a full per capita share of the funding because the province was not consulted on the plan “and there are limitations in the initial analysis and assumptions, including start-up investment and administrative costs to implement a cost-sharing model, that were not taken into consideration that add costs for the provinces,” wrote a spokesperson for LaGrange’s office in the email.
