Please see excerpts from Minister Holland's Letter to provinces and territories on the importance of upholding the Canada Health Act - 2025, issued to all Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Health on January 10, 2025:
"Evolutions in health care delivery have the potential to improve how care is provided to meet the health care needs of people in Canada...
A key aspect in upholding these principles is to ensure that patients do not face charges for medically necessary care when a service would otherwise be covered if provided by a physician. When innovations are introduced into our health care system, it is important to ensure that they benefit all Canadians equally. Unfortunately, over the past few years we have seen that this is not the case in all circumstances and is resulting in patients being charged for medically necessary care.
Physician-Equivalent Services and the Core Basket of Services
There has been an expansion in scopes of practice for many regulated health care professionals (e.g. nurse practitioners, pharmacists, midwives) to better utilize the full extent of their competencies, knowledge and skills to increase access to needed care. This now permits these professionals to deliver some of the same services that would normally be insured if provided by a physician [...]
I want to acknowledge the work of the provinces and territories in increasing patients' access to care through expanding the scope of practice of health care professionals, such as pharmacists and nurse practitioners. I also want to ensure access to these services remains based on medical need, and not a patient's ability or willingness to pay. [...]
In order to give provincial and territorial governments sufficient time to review the administration of their health care plans and make any necessary adjustments, the CHA Services Policy will come into effect on April 1, 2026. [...]
Our publicly funded health care system is dynamic, and can benefit from innovation while remaining true to the fundamental principle of Medicare. By embracing positive evolution while ensuring access based on need, I am confident we can keep delivering improvements in the health care system that will benefit all Canadians."
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