Govt intervention in prescription drug markets provides little benefit for Canadian consumer, says think-tank

Government intervention in prescription drug markets in Canada produces no overall cost-savings for consumers, compared to relatively more free market-based policy approaches in the USA, concludes a new report from the Fraser Institute, Canada's leading public policy think-tank.

'Much of Canada's prescription drug policy is based on the assumption that greater government intervention in the market such as regulation of drug prices will provide more affordable access to drugs. But our research finds that, on average, these policies have not resulted in personal advantages for Canadians compared to the USA,' said Mark Rovere, Fraser Institute associate director of health policy research and co-author of The Average Personal Affordability of Prescription Drug Spending in Canada and the United States. 'If other indirect factors are taken into account, there are probably net socioeconomic costs associated with government intervention,' he noted

The report examines per-capita spending on prescription drugs by both Canadians and Americans in 2009, the most recent year for which data is publicly available. The results indicate that both Canadians and Americans are spending the same percentage of their income on prescription drugs on a per-capita basis.