Federal money for birth control coverage could instead be used for other meds in Manitoba, premier says

New federal legislation that will cover the cost of birth control across the country after Manitoba moved to make it free starting this month could mean the province ends up with more dollars to instead spend on making other types of medication free, Premier Wab Kinew said Friday.

The national pharmacare bill that was central to a now-defunct political pact between the Liberals and NDP received royal assent on Thursday night and has now become law.

The legislation will inform the creation of any future national, universal pharmacare plan and will allow the federal government to sign deals with provinces and territories to cover both birth-control and diabetes medications as part of the public health system.

Kinew said Manitoba is still negotiating a pharmacare agreement with the federal government, which British Columbia already did last month. While that province also already covered the cost of oral contraceptives and used the extra federal cash to instead cover hormone replacement therapy for menopause, Manitoba's premier said it's too soon to say whether the province will follow suit.

"That's not something that we can say that we're in a position to announce here," Kinew told CBC Manitoba's Information Radio host Marcy Markusa in an interview Friday morning.

"There might be a way where we can be creative working alongside the federal government to say, 'All right, birth control is covered. Are there … additional forms of coverage for other forms of women's health, other forms of reproductive freedom that we would be able to now extend?' So those are where the negotiations and conversations are at."

The wording and content of the national pharmacare bill was carefully negotiated as part of the supply-and-confidence deal between the NDP and Liberals, which NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh terminated last month. British Columbia was the first province to sign a memorandum of understanding with Ottawa to launch the program in that province.

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland has said he hopes to have all provinces and territories on board by next spring.

The Pharmacare Act is intended to be the first step in a broader pharmacare regime that will expand to include other medications in the years ahead. 

Canadians are set to go to the polls sometime within the next year, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has come out against the proposed single-payer universal drug plan, arguing it would force Canadians to give up their own private drug plans.

In February, federal officials told reporters in a background briefing that the government does not know how much this first phase of the pharmacare program will cost, and the final price will be determined only after negotiations with the provinces and territories.

When pressed, Holland estimated the cost of providing diabetes medications and contraception at $1.5 billion.