Payment of the public plan annual premium If you spent an entire calendar year (January 1 to December 31) outside Québec and retained your eligibility for Health Insurance, you were required to have prescription drug insurance. In this situation, persons registered for the Public Prescription Drug Insurance Plan don’t have to pay the public plan annual premium for the year they were outside Québec. If you leave Québec for less than a year, you must file an income tax return for the months of the year in which you were in Québec. Revenu Québec will therefore collect the part of the premium corresponding to this period.