Last year, $29.3 billion was spent on prescription drugs in Canada, but the annual growth rate was the second lowest in more than 20 years.
According to a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, this slower growth in spending—2.3% in 2013—was due to increased use of less-expensive generic drugs and related pricing policies.
In 2013, Canadians spent an estimated $34.5 billion on drugs, the majority of which (85%) was spent on prescribed drugs.
Some other highlights from the report include the following:
- prescribed drugs accounted for an estimated 13.9% of total health expenditure;
- public sector drug spending in Canada is forecast to have grown only negligibly, at a rate of less than 0.1%—the lowest rate since 1996, when spending decreased;
- between 2001 and 2013, drugs were one of the fastest-growing major categories of health system spending. However, since 2005, drug spending has grown more slowly than hospital and physician spending;
- in 2013, an estimated 41.6% of prescribed drug spending was financed by the public sector, with the remainder financed by private insurers (34.5%) and out of pocket by households and individuals (23.9%);
- the proportion of prescribed drugs financed by the public sector varied across provinces, ranging from 29.3% in New Brunswick to 47.6% in Saskatchewan;
- generic drugs account for almost three-quarters of use but less than half of spending in public drug programs; and
- the number of Canadians who are taking more than $10,000 worth of prescription drugs every year is on the rise, because public drug programs are spending more on high-cost drugs.
The information is based on data from eight provinces—Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia—and one federal program administered by the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch.
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