The Arthritis Advocate, Volume 2
Quebec election 2026: What the parties’ health commitments mean for arthritis care
Kelly Lendvoy, VP, Communications and Public Affairs, Arthritis Consumer Experts
Quebecers vote on October 5, and health care is a major election issue.
The parties are offering different answers to familiar problems: difficulty finding care, long waits for surgery, health workforce shortages and uneven access across the province. Their proposals range from changes to system management to primary care, telehealth and greater use of private capacity within the publicly funded system. As of September 10, only two of the five major parties, the Conservative Party of Quebec and Québec solidaire, have released full election platforms. All the parties continue to release policy commitments during the campaign.
More than 1.3 million Quebecers living with arthritis have a direct stake in these decisions. Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in Quebec, affecting the ability of people with arthritis to work and contributing to lower productivity, reduced hours, shortened careers and workforce withdrawal.
A new study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA) found that arthritis currently costs Quebec $31.9 billion annually. Without action, that figure is projected to reach $42.7 billion by 2055, including $28.3 billion in social value loss.
ACE’s Vote for Arthritis campaign has identified five priorities for improving arthritis care in Quebec. We are reviewing party platforms and healthcare announcements to see where broader proposals could advance those priorities and where gaps remain.
Getting diagnosed and seeing the right health professional
For someone developing inflammatory arthritis, getting through the front door of the health system is only the beginning. They also need to reach the right health professional quickly enough to get a diagnosis and start treatment.
The Parti Québécois (PQ) wants to strengthen first-line services through CLSCs and decentralize healthcare management. During the September 9 leaders’ event, St-Pierre Plamondon reiterated first-line care and prevention, but no new commitment emerged on access to rheumatologists or specialist referral pathways.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has promised 100,000 additional diagnostic imaging exams each year and wants nurses, pharmacists, nurse practitioners and other health professionals to take on broader roles. It also proposes training more family physicians in the regions.
The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) proposes a province-wide public telehealth service that would direct patients to a nurse, nurse practitioner or physician based on their needs. Patients requiring a physical examination would continue to receive in-person care.
In its health care platform, the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) proposes maximum waits for specialist consultations and diagnostic investigations. If the public system cannot meet them, patients could be treated elsewhere at public expense. The party also proposes 400 to 500 additional medical-school admissions a year and 1,500 new nurse practitioners over four years.
Québec solidaire (QS) would create 400 primary-care access points modelled on CLSCs, with physicians, nurses, occupational therapists and other health professionals. QS says 200 would open during a first mandate and another 200 during a second.
These proposals could improve entry into the healthcare system. The question for voters living with inflammatory arthritis remains how quickly a patient with signs of disease reaches a rheumatologist and begins appropriate treatment.
Waiting for joint replacement surgery
Over 70% of hip replacements and over 99% of knee replacements are directly attributable to arthritis. For people with severe osteoarthritis, joint replacement surgery can restore mobility and reduce pain, but many Quebec patients are waiting beyond the recommended benchmark. In 2025, only 54 per cent of knee replacements and 42 per cent of hip replacements in Quebec were completed within the six-month benchmark.
The CAQ has proposed coordinating surgical waiting lists across regions. After six months, patients waiting for certain procedures could be offered surgery elsewhere in the public system. After nine months, some could receive surgery from a private provider, paid for by the public system. Orthopedic surgery would be included. Fréchette reiterated the nine-month commitment on September 9.
The PCQ’s new health platform also makes waiting-time guarantees central to its approach. It would set maximum waits for major surgeries and, when the public system misses the limit, fund care elsewhere, including through an accredited private provider.
The PQ says it would abolish Santé Québec and redirect anticipated administrative savings toward direct patient care, including reducing surgical waiting lists. The amount of those savings is disputed. A September 8 Montreal Gazette fact-check found the PQ’s claim of at least $40 million in annual savings could not currently be verified.
Post-operative rehabilitation remains largely absent from the campaign discussion. Getting someone through surgery is only part of the joint replacement pathway. Timely physiotherapy and rehabilitation are also part of ACE’s priority to reduce wait times.
Does where you live affect the care you can get?
Where people live can shape how quickly they reach arthritis care and how far they must travel to receive it. Rural, remote and underserved communities can face fewer local services and more difficulty accessing specialist care.
QS says its CLSC-style access points would decentralize care and improve local access, including in more remote regions. The PLQ argues its public telehealth service could reduce unnecessary travel when care can safely be delivered remotely.
The CAQ’s proposal to coordinate surgical waiting lists across regions could allow patients to use available capacity elsewhere in Quebec. It also wants to train more family physicians in the regions. The PQ is approaching the issue through decentralization, stronger CLSCs and a 50 per cent increase in the home-care budget.
The PCQ’s added workforce commitments could expand capacity across the province, although the health platform does not yet set out a specific rural or remote arthritis-care model.
The approaches differ. For ACE, the test is whether people in rural, remote and underserved communities can get comparable access to arthritis care.
Modernizing access to arthritis medications
For people with inflammatory arthritis, timely access to the most appropriate medication can help prevent irreversible joint damage and disability. Public drug plan criteria for reimbursement coverage can affect whether the treatment recommended by a specialist is available when it is needed.
So far, ACE has not identified a commitment from any of the five parties to modernize the Public Prescription Drug Insurance Plan (Régime public d’assurance médicaments), particularly how it determines access to arthritis medications through Special Authorization criteria and “try and fail” requirements.
These policies matter because a specialist may recommend a medication as the most appropriate treatment for a patient, but public coverage can still require the patient to try other treatments first.
Quebec has already removed mandatory conventional therapy requirements before certain biologic treatments for Crohn’s disease. ACE believes the same principle should guide arthritis medication policy: reimbursement criteria should keep pace with clinical evidence and current treatment guidelines.
How will Quebecers know whether access is improving?
Election commitments need to be followed by evidence showing whether access to care is actually improving. Public reporting can identify where patients are still waiting too long and where regional gaps persist.
The CAQ has proposed giving patients more information about their position on surgical waiting lists. The PLQ has said it would retain Santé Québec while decentralizing some decision-making and making the organization more accountable for results.
ACE is looking for broader public reporting. Useful measures for arthritis would include time to diagnosis, specialist access, joint replacement surgery and rehabilitation, regional differences in access, and transparent reporting on where savings from the expanded use of biosimilars are reinvested.
The campaign so far has produced considerably more discussion about healthcare capacity and waiting lists than about medication access or how improvements in care will be measured.
What ACE will be watching
ACE will continue reviewing new platforms and healthcare announcements and will publish the parties’ responses to our Vote for Arthritis questionnaire.
Our role is to help Quebecers living with arthritis understand what the parties are proposing and what those proposals could mean for their care. Can people get diagnosed and see the right health professional sooner? Can they access the medication their clinical situation requires? Can they receive joint replacement surgery and rehabilitation within appropriate timeframes? Is good arthritis care available regardless of where they live? Will the government publicly show whether access is getting better?
What can you do?
People living with arthritis can help put these questions directly to the people asking for their vote. When a candidate comes to your door, attends a community meeting or asks for your support, ask what they and their party will do to improve arthritis care. Tell them about the barriers you have experienced getting a diagnosis, seeing a specialist, accessing medication, receiving surgery or finding care in your community. Ask for a specific answer.
The experiences of people living with arthritis should be part of this election and the decisions that follow it. ACE will continue pressing the parties for clear commitments during the campaign and will hold the next government accountable for what it promises.
On October 5, vote. Before then, make sure the people asking for your vote understand what better arthritis care needs to look like.