It will cost between $150 and $180 to receive a shot if an individual is not eligible for free COVID-19 vaccination, according to AQPP.Hannah Beier/Reuters
Quebec has become the second Canadian province after Alberta that will no longer provide free vaccination against COVID-19 for all its population.
Instead, only certain categories of people will still receive the shot at no cost: seniors, health care workers, residents of remote regions and medically vulnerable patients.
Details have not been officially announced yet, but the Quebec Health Department confirmed a report in the French language newspaper Le Devoir that it plans to end universal COVID-19 vaccination this fall.
According to AQPP, the association of Quebec pharmacy owners, it will cost between $150 and $180 to receive a shot if an individual is not eligible for free COVID-19 vaccination.
Alberta, in June, was the first province to announce an end to universal coverage of the vaccine, except for certain high-risk groups. Most Albertans will have to pay $100 to get a jab this fall.
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The western province’s policy, which has been tweaked multiple times since it was first announced, has come under intense scrutiny from health care experts, advocates, unions and the Opposition for putting people at unnecessary risk. The government defended its approach as a cost-saving measure that prevents vaccine waste.
Quebec and Alberta changed their coverage after Ottawa’s January decision to stop funding provinces for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine.
Both provincial governments face difficult financial prospects. Last spring’s Quebec budget projected a record $13.6-billion deficit for 2025-2026. Alberta expects to end the year with a $6.5-billion shortfall because of softening oil prices.
Quebec Health Department spokesperson Marie-Pierre Blier said her government’s decision was based on recommendations from the committee on immunization working for INSPQ, the province’s public-health institute.
The INSPQ panel said in a March bulletin that vaccinating those under 75 wasn’t cost-effective. People from 50 to 65 years old who had to be hospitalized for COVID-19 were overwhelmingly already afflicted with a chronic disease, the bulletin said. In that age group, “the burden of hospitalization caused by COVID-19 is too low to make vaccination cost-effective.”
In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Ms. Blier said the new guidelines were also attributable to the lack of federal vaccination funding.
Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and member of the INSPQ panel, said the “major downside” of this change is that it could increase health inequity between people who can afford the vaccine and those who can not.
But he said the updated vaccine program is justifiable because the burden of COVID-19 has lessened.
“Obviously, if there were a new variant that came out that would significantly alter the epidemiology then immunization committees like the Quebec one would re-evaluate whether a risk factor-based program is preferred over a universal COVID-19 program,” he said.
Dr. Papenburg was not speaking on behalf of the expert panel.
Under Quebec’s new rules, free vaccination for COVID-19 will only be offered to people over 65, residents of nursing homes and seniors’ homes, pregnant women, health care workers, residents of remote regions, dialysis patients and those with chronic diseases or immunodeficient conditions.
The flu vaccine will still be provided free of charge to Quebeckers older than six months, but with older, vulnerable people being given priority.
In Alberta, immunocompromised individuals, seniors in care homes or receiving home care and those on income support will have their COVID-19 vaccination covered by the province. The government, last month, also reinstated coverage for health workers after union pressure.
Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that everyone over six months may receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The panel also considers those who are pregnant, Indigenous or members of racialized and other equity-denied communities to be at higher risk and says they should receive a shot.
Lynora Saxinger, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Alberta, said while the committee’s recommendations are “somewhat customizable,” varying substantially from them is concerning.
“Even though you might argue about whether the data supports this approach of targeting high-risk only, it is still a move away from what has been done before and it does open a door for more variability in the future,” said Dr. Saxinger.
“If we start seeing a lot of interprovincial variability in what’s being covered, you might end up with provinces that have A-team vaccine coverage and ones that have C-team vaccine coverage and I don’t think that’s appropriate.”