Bill S-5 (Connected Care for Canadians Act) mandates health IT interoperability and prohibits data blocking across provinces. CHA Services Policy (effective April 1, 2026) expands public coverage to medically necessary services by nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and midwives — historically only covered when provided by physicians. Together these represent the largest structural healthcare reform since the 2004 Health Accord.

Epoch: 115

Domain: healthcare

Fiscal cost estimate (LLM): $1.20B CAD

Structural estimate (RIPPLE): -$2.79B CAD net (v3-bfs-signed depth=2, decay=0.5/hop; diverges)

Top RIPPLE cost paths

• −$9.30B → healthcare_spending (Healthcare Spending) via healthcare_wait_times
• +$5.82B → consumer_spending (Consumer Spending Growth) via healthcare_satisfaction
• +$1.00B → federal_budget_balance (Federal Budget Balance) via healthcare_wait_times
• −$0.25B → education_spending (Education Spending) via gdp_growth_rate

Variable changes

• healthcare_wait_times: {"new": 24.0, "old": 27.7}
• np_pharmacist_service_coverage: {"new": 0.45, "old": 0.15}
• health_data_interoperability_score: {"new": 0.55, "old": 0.25}