A smart change to health care

At first glance, the Ontario government’s sudden decision to rein in the number of young people eligible for free prescription drugs confirmed the worst fears many people have of these newly-elected Progressive Conservatives.

After all, Christine Elliott had barely been sworn in as health minister at the end of June when she announced that OHIP+ — the program introduced with much fanfare by the previous Liberal government on Jan. 1 — would no longer be offered to kids and young adults with private coverage.

Critics of the PCs had a field day. Didn’t this prove the Tories are hard-hearted cheapskates? Didn’t this prove Doug Ford would barge ahead with spending and service cuts no matter who gets hurt?

And if you didn’t look closely at what Elliott had actually done, you might have agreed.

At second glance, however, the PCs have fine-tuned a well-intended but poorly delivered plan to improve Ontario’s increasingly challenged public health system.

And they’ve added to an important and necessary discussion about whether this country should finally introduce a national pharmacare program and, if so, what it would look like.

For years, people have pointed to a glaring gap in public health-care coverage in most of Canada, including Ontario.

If you need to see a family doctor in Ontario, it’s publicly-funded for most things. If you need treatment by a specialist or in a hospital for a serious medical problem, it’s publicly-funded, too.

But for a long time, if you needed a prescribed medication to cure what’s ailing you in Ontario, you had to find your own way to pay, unless you were disabled, on welfare or a senior. Even then, the range of medication covered is limited with the province paying for about 4,400 drugs — a mere fraction of the thousands available.

There is widespread agreement that this is a failing in Canadian medicare that falls hardest on the shoulders of the poor.

There is widespread agreement more should be done to make essential prescription drugs accessible to everyone in need. But there is no widespread agreement on the way forward — particularly because a national pharmacare program would cost billions.

So, acutely aware of its sagging popular support and the looming election, Ontario’s governing Liberals announced OHIP+, which would provide free prescription drugs for every resident under 25.

But OHIP+ was poorly thought-out because it covered everyone, four million people in total. That number included the 2.8 million young people already covered by private insurance plans, most often the plans of their parents.

Yet despite this reality, taxpayers began paying for prescription drugs for kids and young adults who didn’t need the help because they had prior coverage.

This is the problem Elliott will fix. Children and youth not covered by private benefits will continue to obtain their eligible prescriptions free of charge.

Young people covered by private plans will bill their insurer first, and the government second.

At a time when the Ontario government, saddled with a $325-billion debt and trying to spend every tax dollar wisely, is looking for savings without cutting valued services, Elliott’s solution is sound.

It will be for another day to decide if Canada and Canadian taxpayers should find a way to start paying for universal pharmacare, or a more limited version to help those who can’t provide for themselves.

For now, this province will continue to meet the prescription drug needs of young Ontarians without private coverage.

That’s compassion. And that’s smart.