Health Canada won't fight Alberta's plan to charge for COVID vaccines
OTTAWA — Health Canada isn't quarrelling with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's announcement that most Albertans will soon have to pay out of pocket for COVID-19 shots.
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Nicholas Janveau, a spokesperson for the federal agency, said Tuesday that the decision is entirely the premier's to make.
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'Provinces and territories are responsible for the delivery and administration of their respective vaccination programs including determining which vaccines are publicly funded, eligibility criteria, and other relevant considerations,' wrote Janveau in an email to the National Post.
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Smith announced Friday that, starting this fall, most of Alberta's 4.8 million residents will need to pay out of pocket for COVID vaccines, if they choose to get them.
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She said on her weekly call-in radio show that the change was a necessary cost-saving measure, after the Liberal government announced in January that federal funding for vaccines would end this year.
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'Now that we have to develop our own new program for payment … we want to avoid wastage (and) make sure that people get it as a priority who are most at risk, and then make (vaccines) available to whoever else wants (them),' said Smith.
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Smith noted that more than a million doses were left unused and discarded during the 2023-24 respiratory virus season, costing taxpayers $135 million.
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'The sad part was we threw away over a million doses, because people just don't want to get the (COVID) vaccine in the same rates as others,' said Smith.
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'I think it's because (the COVID vaccine) doesn't work particularly well,' said Smith, when asked what she made of the shortfall.
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A government press release said that provincially-funded vaccines will still be given free of charge to dependent seniors, the immunocompromised and those on social assistance.
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All other Albertans, including those over the age of 65, will be required to pay the full cost of the vaccine.
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The release doesn't say how much this will be but references a Center for Disease Control costing estimates of $110 per vaccine dose.
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Even with the changes, Alberta is budgeting $49 million for COVID vaccines for the 2025-26 respiratory season, versus $19 million for flu shots and $2 million for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) shots.
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Toronto-area physician Shawn Whatley, formerly the head of the Ontario Medical Association and a fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said that the permissibility of out-of-pocket costs under the Canada Health Act is largely a question of whether the services involved are deemed 'medically necessary.'
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