The Quebec government has announced a new drug plan that will provide welfare recipients and seniors with free prescription drugs starting in July.
Health Minister Philippe Couillard announced in Quebec City on Thursday that the new policy will help about 280,000 Quebecers.
"The way it used to work is that people over 55 and considered to be employable used to have to pay $16 a month for their prescription medication. It is now free for those people," CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie reported.
"The other part of the announcement is that the government is capping the price of generic drugs to make sure these drugs stay affordable."
Couillard also announced that starting on April 18 the Quebec government will lift the freeze on prescription drug prices which has been in place since 1994.
They will rise at the same rate as the Consumer Price Index, Lurie reported.
This will protect some 18,000 pharmaceutical jobs in the province of Quebec, Couillard said.
While there will be extra costs associated with this plan, the province will see savings too, the health minister said.
"Next July you will not have a single penny of impact of that policy, because these adjustments are only done in respect to the previous year. So the first impact will happen in July 2008," Couillard said.
Some activist groups have complained, however, that the policy should have been extended for anyone living below the poverty line.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie
