It's federal budget time again and everyone from the Council of Canadians to allies, politicians, news outlets and the Twitterverse seems to be abuzz with concerns over what this Harper budget will contain. The world of health care is equally concerned, although much of its fate was laid out by Flaherty at the Finance Minister's meeting in mid-December.

Much like with the health care accord, the federal government is able to tie federal dollars to new programs, services, national standards and benchmarks at any time. The budget gives the Harper government an opportunity to strengthen and expand health care in Canada -- but I'm feeling rather pessimistic that they'll take this opportunity.

One in 10 Canadians are not able to adhere to their prescriptions due to the cost of prescription drugs, found Michael Law et al. in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. But more than just numbers, the study asked who are those one in 10 and found something truly troubling. The people in Canada who are the most unlikely to adhere to prescription medication due to cost are: those who do not have drug insurance (public or private), those who earn the lowest income ($20,000 or less), and those who are in the poorest health or have multiple conditions -- in other words, those who could benefit the most from pharmacare.

Our need for pharmacare

In the early morning hours of Monday, January 16, as the sun rose on a fresh snow-covered ground, I, along with Canada's premiers, watched as 15 bright umbrellas came bobbing around the Victoria harbour. Fifteen youth activists representing Students for Medicare, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, British Columbia Health Coalition, HIV/AIDS organizations, GLBTQ rights organizations and more "braved the elements" (as the Globe and Mail reported) to send a message to premiers that medicare has got you covered.

As many of you have likely seen, read or heard, the Council of the Federation -- which is made up of the first ministers from each province and territory -- met in Victoria, B.C. to discuss the 2014 health care accord and hopefully find common ground on their response to the federal government's unilateral move on financing the Canada Health Transfer.

Maude and I found ourselves beside Christy Clark in the middle of a media scrum when she announced optimistically that the first ministers had made some progress finding a common ground. What they did agree on was that the actions of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in late December were "unprecedented and unacceptable" but it sounds like that was about it -- according to Alberta's Premier Alison.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow, health-care campaigner Adrienne Silnicki and organizing assistant Ava Waxman are in Victoria demanding a Canada health accord that defends and expands public health care.

So here we are in sunny and snowy (which is rare, I'm told) Victoria, B.C. for the Council of the Federation meeting. The first ministers from across Canada are arriving in Victoria tonight and tomorrow morning to discuss the 2014 health-care accord and likely decide what their response is going to be to a federal government who is calling for accountability in health care from the provinces but walking away from their own responsibilities.

This morning Maude, Ava (B.C. Regional Office) and I joined with pro-medicare allies and Health Care Critic Libby Davies at a roundtable conference on health care.