Quebec employs user-pay philosophy in launching drug-insurance plan

The Quebec government has introduced a new provincial drug-insurance scheme that by January 1997 will provide coverage to all Quebecers. The first phase of the measure, which was instituted for reasons that were partly financial and partly social, came into effect in August, to the chagrin of the province's welfare recipients and elderly. They are the first to pay 25% of the cost of prescriptions under the new copayment plan.