Canada's national health spending crunch the result of public insurance programs, not drug costs

Claims that prescription drug costs are at the root of Canada’s health spending crisis are unfounded and not supported by any proof, concludes a new report by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.

“There’s no evidence linking the unsustainable growth of government health spending to the price of prescription drugs or new patented medicines,” said Mark Rovere, Fraser Institute associate director of health policy research and co-author of The Misguided War Against Medicines 2011. “In 2010, medical goods and services other than drugs consumed a staggering 91 per cent of total government health spending. To single out prescription drugs as the root of Canada’s health spending problem is just plain wrong,” he warned.

The report measures how all types of drug spending affect total government health care costs. The evidence suggests that neither patented medicines in particular, nor prescription drugs in general, can be blamed for the unsustainable growth rates of government health spending.