🍁 civid v1

Status and purpose

• Bill C-280 received first reading on June 3, 2026. It would enact the Mental Health Parity Act and amend the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act.
• It would tie provinces’ eligibility for a full federal Canada Health Transfer cash contribution to criteria and conditions for insured mental health, addictions and substance use services.
• The preamble states that the Canada Health Act does not require insurance plans to cover community-based services needed by many Canadians.

Coverage and who is affected

• The bill covers medically required services for maintaining mental health, preventing mental illness, and diagnosing or treating mental illness, addiction or substance use concerns, including services in community settings. It also covers specified hospital and physician services.
• Provincial plans would have to cover insured residents on uniform terms. The definition excludes Canadian Forces members, people serving a penitentiary sentence and residents who have not completed a provincial waiting period of up to three months. Some services covered under other federal laws or provincial workers’ compensation laws are also excluded.
• The bill affects provincial governments and insurance plans, insured residents, medical and other health care practitioners, and hospitals.

Requirements for full funding

Provincial plans would have to meet five criteria throughout the fiscal year:

• Public administration: Plans must be operated on a non-profit basis by an accountable, auditable public authority.
• Comprehensiveness: Plans must insure all covered services, including any specified by regulation.
• Universality: Insured residents must receive coverage on uniform terms and conditions.
• Portability: Waiting periods cannot exceed three months. Plans must also pay for covered services during temporary absences and, in specified circumstances, after a resident moves to another province.
• Accessibility: Plans must provide reasonable access without barriers such as charges, pay for services under a provincial payment system, provide reasonable compensation to medical practitioners and pay hospitals for covered services.

Provinces would also have to provide prescribed information, recognize the Canada Health Transfer in relevant public materials and meet prescribed public-reporting requirements.

Charges and enforcement

• To qualify for full funding, provinces must not permit plan payments for covered services subject to extra-billing by medical practitioners, or permit user charges for covered services. An exception applies to certain accommodation and meal charges for long-term chronic-care patients.
• The federal Health Minister would determine or, where required information is unavailable, estimate the amounts charged through extra-billing or applicable user charges. Equivalent amounts would be deducted from the province’s cash contribution.
• For other failures to meet the criteria or conditions, the Governor in Council could reduce or withhold a contribution after the prescribed consultation and referral process. Continuing defaults would result in the reduction or withholding being reimposed.

Powers, deadlines and fiscal changes

• After consulting provincial health ministers, the Governor in Council could make regulations specifying covered services, reasonable-access standards, information requirements and public reporting.
• In the default process, the federal minister must report to the province within 90 days after sending a notice of concern. A reduction or withholding order cannot take effect earlier than 30 days after it is sent to the province.
• The minister must report annually to Parliament, no later than December 31 of the next fiscal year.
• The fiscal-law amendments would incorporate the new criteria and deductions into the transfer framework, permit reimbursement certificates when the circumstances behind a deduction no longer exist, and allow other federal payments to be treated as cash contributions to recover excess reductions or deductions.
• The bill does not specify a new funding amount or total cost.