The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reported recently that Canadians' spending on drugs likely hit an all-time high of $478 per capita in 2000. This represents an increase of 8.1% over 1999, or a 4.6% hike when adjusted for inflation. Per capita spending on drugs as a proportion of total per capita health spending has risen slightly every year between 1985 (when it accounted for 9.5% of total spending) and 2000 (15.5%). Spending on drugs now surpasses every other area of health care spending except hospital services and is 2% higher than spending on physician services (13.5% of total).
Prescription drug expenditures as a proportion of total drug expenditures have also risen steadily in the past 15 years, from 67% of the total in 1985 to a high of 77% in 2000. Over-the-counter drugs (12%) and personal health supplies (11%) accounted for the remainder of drug-related spending in 2000. Governments and government agencies picked up the tab for 33% of total drug expenditures in 2000, while private insurance plans covered 26%; the remaining 41% were out-of-pocket expenditures.
In 1998, the latest year for which provincial data are available, per capita drug expenditures were highest in Ontario ($483), PEI ($450) and Nova Scotia ($442), and lowest in the Northwest Territory ($306). Drug expenditures per capita as a proportion of total health expenditures were also lowest in the NWT (5.8%) and highest in PEI (17.3%) and Ontario (16.4%). The proportion of spending on prescribed drugs that was financed by provincial or territorial governments was highest in British Columbia (46.7%) and Ontario (37.8%), and lowest in the NWT (10.2%).
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Shelley Martin
martis@cma.ca
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