Budget 2026 leaves households paying more for health care
OTTAWA — Budget 2026 promises Canadians a more affordable life, but it leaves households to carry the rising cost of health care on their own, says the Canadian Health Coalition. Nurses, health care workers, labour federations and health coalitions agree: the budget offers short-term patches, not a plan for public health care.
“Families are paying out of pocket for prescriptions, home care and care for aging parents, and this budget does nothing to lower those bills,” said Jason MacLean, Chair of the Canadian Health Coalition. “The government left pharmacare out, let funding for home care and long-term care run toward a cliff, and stayed silent while provinces open the door to paying for care with a credit card. Canadians believe our public health care system can be fixed. They need a federal government willing to fix it.”
What we asked for
In May 2026, the Canadian Health Coalition made five recommendations to the House of Commons Finance Committee. Each would protect households from the rising cost of care:
- Do not cut federal health spending, through public service job cuts or a smaller Canada Health Transfer.
- Enforce the Canada Health Act, so no one is charged for medically necessary care.
- Make sure federal health infrastructure dollars support public hospitals and clinics, not private, for-profit providers.
- Keep building national universal pharmacare by signing agreements with the remaining provinces and territories.
- Involve frontline health care workers in solving the challenges facing public health care.
Our members made the same case. Unifor asked Ottawa to keep the 5 per cent growth guarantee on the Canada Health Transfer, maintain $1.2 billion a year for home care and mental health, and sign pharmacare agreements with every province and territory by the end of 2026. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions called for the transfer to grow by 6 per cent a year. The Canadian Labour Congress called for universal pharmacare and dental care, adequate health care staffing, and expanded long-term and mental health care.
What the budget delivered
The budget meets none of these requests in full.
No pharmacare. The word does not appear in the budget. Only four jurisdictions (Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon) have signed pharmacare agreements, and there is no money to bring in the rest. Most households will keep paying for prescriptions out of pocket or through workplace plans. Friends of Medicare noted that Albertans still lack the free coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medications that people in Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon and Prince Edward Island receive.
A one-year patch for home care and mental health. Federal funding for home and community care and for mental health and addictions services is extended only to March 31, 2028. “Patchwork funding is not going to meet Canada’s health care demands,” said Linda Silas, President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
A long-term care cliff. The $600 million a year in federal long-term care funding ends after 2027-28 with no replacement. As the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) noted, this funding runs out even as Canada’s population continues to age. NUPGE also said the budget has no plan for the health care staffing crisis.
No long-term funding plan. When these programs end, federal health support to provinces and territories grows by only about 1.2 per cent in 2028-29, below the budget’s own inflation forecast of 2.2 per cent. In 2026-27, Ottawa will spend more on interest on the debt ($60.2 billion) than on the Canada Health Transfer ($57.4 billion).
Cuts behind the headlines. The Canadian Association of Professional Employees warned that more than $3 billion in planned Health Canada cuts put rare disease drug funding, the opioid response and disease prevention at risk. The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) and the Public Service Alliance of Canada criticized the budget for “making big promises” while cutting public service expertise.
Dental care on shaky ground. In October, Auditor General Karen Hogan reported that Canadian Dental Care Plan payments ran about $1.1 billion over budget in the program’s first two years. Health Canada covered the gap by moving funding between fiscal years, which the Auditor General called only a temporary solution, and her office projects a further shortfall of about $1.2 billion by 2031-32. Budget 2026 keeps the plan running, but it again shifts $344.6 million between years and books savings of nearly $200 million a year in 2029-30 and 2030-31. Friends of Medicare said Canadians need a commitment that they can rely on the plan in the years to come.
Silence on the Canada Health Act. The budget does not mention the Act or Alberta’s Bill 11, which allows patients to be charged for medically necessary care. “Any federal funding needs to come with strings attached,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. He said those strings are laid out in the Canada Health Act, which Alberta is violating by implementing Bill 11.
There is some good news. The budget makes the Canada Caregiver Credit fully refundable, and renews funding for Indigenous health, including Jordan’s Principle and the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program. SEIU Healthcare called new support for its Healthcare Training Centre “a major win for workers, families, and care.”
Health care costs are household costs
Budget 2026 calls affordability one of its three pillars. It counts nearly $22 billion over five years in new affordability measures for groceries, energy, rent and fuel. Health care costs are not on that list.
“Affordability cannot be treated as secondary to economic growth,” said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. The CLC noted that the budget commits far more to business incentives than to direct support for people.
When public services fall short, families pay. “Public services like health care and child care make life more affordable,” said Candace Rennick, National Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. NUPGE President Bert Blundon said the budget’s modest benefits cannot make up for the cost of “being forced to wait months or years for medical treatment.” Unifor said the new benefits for low-income workers “do not make a dent in affordability challenges.”
Pharmacare, home care and long-term care are exactly the costs that land on household budgets when governments step back. Every dollar a family spends on a prescription, a home care worker or a private clinic is a dollar it cannot spend on rent or groceries.
What Canadians are telling us
Canadians see health care costs as part of the affordability crisis, and they believe the public system can be fixed. A 2026 national survey of 3,000 Canadians by Abacus Data for the Canadian Health Coalition found:
- 87 per cent are concerned about paying out of pocket for health care services that are not fully covered.
- 91 per cent agree that because Canadians already struggle with housing, groceries and everyday costs, health care should not become another expense.
- 80 per cent agree that the public system can meet Canadians’ needs if governments invest more in it.
What we are calling for
The budget is not final. Parliament will debate the budget implementation legislation in the coming weeks. The Canadian Health Coalition calls on the federal government and all parties to:
- Make health care part of the affordability plan. Sign pharmacare agreements with every remaining province and territory, and cover more essential medications.
- Stop the 2028 cliff. Renew federal funding for home care, mental health and long-term care on a permanent basis, tied to public delivery.
- Enforce the Canada Health Act. No one should pay out of pocket for medically necessary care, in Alberta or anywhere else.
- Keep federal health funding growing with need, in step with inflation, population growth and an aging population, and reverse cuts to Health Canada.
- Bring frontline health care workers to the table in the coming federal-provincial talks on the future of health care.
“Canadians want health care paid for with their health card, not their credit card,” said MacLean. “When our members come to Parliament Hill in February, they will bring that message to every MP and Senator.”
