Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said, “No Canadian should be paying out of pocket for medically necessary services and our government will not tolerate it.”

The sentiment was expressed as the federal government announced today (Fri) that it is cutting transfer payments to several provinces which Minister Duclos says wrongly charged people for health care services.

The amount being cut from the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) totals more than $82 million. The federal government says the services wrongly charged include M-R-I’s and C-T scans that should have been covered by the public plan.

He also announced next steps to curb private medically necessary health care being paid out-of-pocket by Canadians, with a focus on virtual care and other medically necessary services that Canadians are being asked to pay for.

“As the nature of care evolves, we must protect Canadians’ ability to access medically necessary services free of charge – no matter how or where care is delivered.”

The deductions to the CHT were required for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.