Advocates for Montreal’s gay community are urging the Quebec government to start offering free preventative HIV drug coverage.
Alexandre Dumont Blais is executive director of RÉZO, an organization that turned a shipping container in the Montreal Gay Village into a STI and HIV testing clinic, known as Zone Rose.
He says that Quebec should follow the lead of many other Canadian provinces and start offering free preventative HIV drug coverage.
Provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan offer the medication for free under their provincial health insurance for at-risk individuals.
The HIV preventive medication is known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. It’s taken by those who are HIV-negative but at risk of exposure to HIV.
Dumont Blais says that with the rise of HIV cases across Canada — including Montreal who saw a 120 per cent increase in 2022– and with the cost of living having increased substantially, there are people who may be at risk but unable to afford the medication.
Barriers to accessing the HIV drug
Dumont Blais is convinced that part of solution lies in creating a provincewide program that would offer the pill for free. Especially, he says to vulnerable members of the population such as those who are newly arrived in Canada.
People covered under Quebec’s public health insurance plan, RAMQ, or by a private insurer can pay between $70 and $100 per month if they take the medication every day. However, uninsured individuals can see that amount climb to $250.
Many Quebec family doctors are also not that familiar with PrEP and may be hesitant to prescribe it, which increases barriers to accessing it.