The coalition wants dental, vision, and hearing cover widened, and the caregiver allowance made a refundable credit
Five changes to Quebec's public coverage for older residents have been put to the province's next government, spanning dental care, vision aids, hearing aids, home-assistance equipment and the tax treatment of caregiver support.
The list comes from the Health Action Committee of the Point St. Charles Community Clinic, which developed it with the Coalition pour la dignité des aînés.
At the centre of the package is a call to extend Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ)'s public cover for oral and dental care, both preventative and curative, to everyone aged 65 and over.
The committee also wants the Mieux voir pour réussir program, which reimburses $300 toward glasses or contact lenses for each child under 18, opened to older residents, and RAMQ funding for hearing aids in both ears rather than one.
Two further demands would abolish the $200 excess under the provincial daily living and domestic assistance program and convert the home autonomy allowance into a refundable, tax-free credit for carers.
Pierre Lynch, spokesperson for the Coalition pour la dignité des aînés, said in the statement that older people "postpone care, go without essential equipment or go into debt" to cover basic needs.
He said the coalition's proposed measures would have a direct impact on health.
More than half of older people in Quebec report a gross income of less than $35,000, and a Léger survey conducted in the spring found nearly half of Quebecers aged 50 and over fear running out of money during retirement, the committee said.
Quebec ranked third among the 10 provinces for health system performance among adults aged 65 and over, fourth on access to care and first on quality of care, according to Commentary 708, published last March by the CD Howe Institute in Toronto and written by policy analyst Tingting Zhang.
The analysis draws on the Commonwealth Fund's 2024 international survey of older adults, run in Canada by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Only 3 percent of older Quebecers reported forgoing medication because of cost, against roughly 10 percent each in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Zhang attributes the result to Quebec's pharmacare model, which requires every senior to enrol in a public plan, a private plan or both.
Dental care runs the other way.
In 2024, 21.5 percent of Canadian older adults skipped needed dental care because of cost, against an international average of 13.6 percent, with rates from 15.9 percent in Saskatchewan to 33.3 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Public schemes covered 6 percent of dental costs in Canada, compared with 73 percent in Germany.
Some 6.27 million Canadians had been approved under the Canadian Dental Care Plan as of 31 January.
Quebec ranked last among the 10 provinces on care process, hospital care, and home care.
Zhang's simulations show that matching German and Dutch appointment availability would lift Quebec's overall performance to near the international average, and that adding top-tier drug and dental access would push it above.
Mario Normandin, a member of the Health Action Committee, said Canada "officially became an ageing nation" in 2026, with at least 20 percent of the population aged 65 and over.
He asked whether older people will grow old with dignity or live in poverty with declining health.
Prince Edward Island has lowered deductibles, reduced copayments and broadened its provincial formulary, with seniors paying $8.25 plus $7.69 of the pharmacy professional fee per eligible prescription and the program covering the remainder.
Rising drug and dental claims costs have pressured Canadian plan sponsors over the same period.
