A message from your pharmacists to the people of Quebec because your access to healthcare concerns all of us.
What the government is doing, and why it directly concerns you
Right now, in Quebec City, an amendment to Bill 15 is about to change the life of every Quebecer who sets foot in a pharmacy, that is, practically everyone.
The government is about to cap the fees that pharmacists can charge private insurers. In other words: they want to force pharmacies to operate on revenues that do not even cover their actual costs.
This is not an abstract debate between politicians and lobbyists. It is your neighbourhood pharmacy that is threatened. It is your access to healthcare that is at stake.
What will change in your daily life, concretely
Your pharmacy will close earlier
Are you used to stopping by the pharmacy on Saturday afternoon, or in the evening after work? If this amendment passes, many pharmacies will no longer be able to afford staying open outside peak hours. Evenings, weekends, holidays, the time slots when you need them the most will be the first to go.
You will wait longer at the emergency room
In recent years, with Bills 31 and 41, your pharmacist can prescribe an antibiotic for a urinary tract infection, treat your conjunctivitis, vaccinate you, and adjust your medications. Quick, accessible care, no appointment needed. If pharmacies can no longer afford to offer these services, those patients go back to the ER. The ER that is already overflowing. The ER where you wait 12, 14, 18 hours.
Your neighbourhood pharmacist will disappear
There are 1,900 community pharmacies in Quebec. Some are the only source of healthcare in their village. If we cut the revenues of these pharmacies, it is the regions that suffer first. Not Montreal. Not Quebec City. The small villages where your grandmother picks up her heart medication, where the pharmacist is the only healthcare professional within a 45-minute drive.
Your employer will cut your insurance coverage
If the government caps what pharmacists can charge private insurers, the insurers will adjust their grids, but not necessarily in your favour. The domino effect is predictable: group insurance plans will be renegotiated, deductibles increased, coverage reduced. You will pay more out of pocket for the same medications.
Your pharmacist will have less time to talk to you
The salaried pharmacist who takes five minutes to explain the side effects of your new medication. The pharmacist who calls your doctor to flag a dangerous interaction. The family pharmacist who has known your file by heart for ten years. All of that takes time and resources.
The real winners: insurers and multinationals, not you
They want you to believe this measure is in your interest. Yet it is not your pharmacist’s fees that are driving up your insurance premiums. It is the rising costs of specialty medications, treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars a year and are manufactured by multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Your premiums are going up? It is because of these overpriced medications, not because of the pharmacist who serves you at the counter. The AQPP says it clearly: the real debate should be about the rising cost of medications, not about the revenues of neighbourhood pharmacies.
By going after pharmacies rather than the true sources of pressure on the system, the government is protecting the interests of private insurers and pharmaceutical giants, and you are the one paying the price.
The paradox that should outrage everyone
The government expanded the role of pharmacists with Bill 67, a law that told them: “You are capable of doing more. Prescribe, draw blood, vaccinate, treat.” Pharmacists accepted. They trained. They invested.
And now, the same government is about to cut their revenues. Concretely, it is telling them: “Figure it out.”
It is like asking a contractor to renovate an entire building, then telling them you will only pay half the bill, after the work has already started.
The financial impact the government does not want you to see
The amendment represents an approximately 25% decrease in revenues for community pharmacies.
A quarter of revenues. Gone. Overnight.
- 25% less revenue means 25% less investment: fewer staff, less training, fewer technologies, fewer clinical services for you.
- This revenue gap does not come from “greedy” pharmacists. It comes from the fact that public plan rates have not been properly indexed for over 20 years. Meanwhile, everything has gone up: rent, salaries, insurance, software, training.
- Instead of correcting the chronic underfunding of the public plan, the government is choosing to level down.
- For a typical pharmacy, this revenue loss is equivalent to having to cut positions, reduce opening hours, and abandon the very services that Bill 67 asks them to provide.
Who is behind this measure?
The amendment was proposed by Québec solidaire MNA Alexandre Leduc, adopted without consulting pharmacists, without notice, and in the middle of negotiations between the AQPP and the government.
The AQPP withdrew from the negotiating table, an unprecedented move. Its president, Benoit Morin, called the amendment a “massive slap in the face.”
The cases of “overbilling” that fuelled the media debate involve a handful of players in specialty medications. The AQPP had proposed targeted solutions to address these abuses. The government ignored them and chose to punish all 1,900 pharmacies in Quebec.
The industry is unanimous: this is unacceptable
The entire profession, owners, employees, independents, technicians is on the same side. The professional orders, the associations, the banners: no one supports this amendment. Because everyone knows that if pharmacies fall, it is the patients who pay the price.
It is an entire profession sounding the alarm to protect your access to healthcare.
What the government should do instead
The solution is simple: instead of cutting pharmacy revenues, the government must increase RAMQ rates to reflect the real cost of pharmaceutical services in 2026, and tackle the true causes of rising premiums the costs of specialty medications and the practices of major insurers.
You do not fix an underfunded system by impoverishing those who hold it together.
What you can do
Share this article. Show it to your family, your colleagues, your neighbours. The more people understand what is happening, the more pressure the government will face to back down.
Write to your MNA. It is simple and takes two minutes. Go to jappuiemonpharmacien.com to send a letter directly to your elected representative.
Ask them:
- “Do you find it acceptable that I would have to wait 18 hours in the ER for a urinary tract infection that my pharmacist could have treated in 20 minutes?”
- “Is it acceptable that I lose the care provided by my family pharmacist for my chronic pain that has lasted for years?”
- “Who will adjust my mother’s diabetes medications if her neighbourhood pharmacy closes?”
- “My pharmacy is open until 9 PM, it is the only place I can go after work, do you find it acceptable that it closes at 5 PM?”
Because that is exactly what is coming if no one reacts.
References
- Radio-Canada – Quebec caps medication fees for insurers
- La Presse – The debate should be about the rising cost of medications
- AQPP – The AQPP withdraws from negotiations
- ABCPQ – Pharmacy chains and banners stand with the AQPP
- Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec – Primary care policy
- I support my pharmacist – Write to your MNA