Nine Circles of Shell

Prescription Drug Prices in Canada

I met the rare Canadian today who does not like the Canadian healthcare system. The reason they gave was that their prescription drug prices were actually higher in Canada than in the US. Higher.

I've literally never heard anyone make this argument in my life. I immediately thought to myself "but what about that time Bernie took people to Canada to buy insulin because it was cheaper there?!" It seems pretty apparent that insulin is indeed cheaper in Canada, but that doesn't mean the person I was talking to was wrong. I'm sure they did pay more for their prescription, I've just never heard that being a huge problem before from a Canadian.

So I looked into it. It turns out that for generic drugs specifically, Canada is actually often worse than the US in terms of prices. According to Pharmacy Checker, US generics are on average 68% cheaper than their Canadian counter parts. However, namebrand drugs are 75% cheaper in Canada than in the US.

The truly important question though is who spends less in total, an American or a Canadian? The per capita spending on prescriptions in America were $1,220.00 versus $832.00 in Canada for 2018, according to a report by the Committee on Ways and Means. The international average according to that same report was $675.25. To further drive the point home, the overall health expenditure in the US was $13,722 in 2018 versus $6,448 in Canada.