A little more than one year after Ontario introduced free universal pharmacare for everybody under the age of 25, the province’s new government is making good on its promise to repeal part of the program.
As of April 1, children and young adults with private insurance plans will no longer be able to make use of the OHIP+ program, which was introduced by the province’s previous Liberal administration in 2018.
Instead, coverage for the more than 4,400 eligible medications will revert back to the private insurance plans that handled it prior to the creation of OHIP+.
People facing significant costs for prescription medication despite having private insurance may be eligible for assistance through the province’s Trillium Drug Program.
Ontario residents under the age of 25 without private insurance plans will continue to receive full coverage through OHIP+.
When OHIP+ was implemented, it was touted as improving pharmacare access for four million Ontarians, an estimated 1.2 million of whom did not have private coverage at the time.
