Down the Drain - How Canada Has Wasted $62 Billion Health Care Dollars Without Pharmacare

In December 2016, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions released a new report titled: Down the Drain: How Canada Has Wasted $62 Billion Health Care Dollars Without Pharmacare, where noted economist Hugh Mackenzie calculates the disturbing amount Canada has wasted over the past 10 years by not implementing national pharmacare.

The report calculates the waste from 2006-2015. Mackenzie starts the clock two years after 2004, when Canada’s premiers unanimously called for the federal government to implement national pharmacare. Today the rate of waste continues to grow, adding even more to the growing missed opportunity of pharmacare. This year, Canadians will waste an additional $7.3 billion, equaling $14,000 squandered health care dollars every minute of every day, due to Canadians paying among the world’s highest prices for prescription drugs.