By Sam Bennison

To Your Health

1 in 4 Canadian can’t afford their prescriptions according to new poll

Feb 27, 2024 | 3:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE— The Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer society released a leger poll that reports 22 percent of Canadians are skipping, splitting, or stopping their prescriptions due to the costs of the medication; something that doesn’t surprise local pharmacist Brianna Pallot.

Pallot explains that new medication is often the most expensive leading to patients having difficulties affording them.

“When a medication comes out, there’s a brand name and that has a patent on it, which means we cannot have generic formulation,” says Pallot. “That company can charge technically as much as they want for the medication and because it has very good evidence, we want patients to take it because of the benefits. But if there’s no generic formulation, we literally can’t get any cheaper version until that patent is over.”

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“If people go to their doctor and they’re sick and their doctor prescribes medication and those people aren’t able to afford that medication, chances are they’re going to get sicker, states Taylor Bachrach, MP for Skeena-Bulkley Vally. “When they get sicker, they end up in our emergency rooms, they end up in our hospitals. That all costs the system money.”

The new federal pharmacare deal seeks to combat prescription affordability by first covering contraception and diabetes medications which Bachrach says is the first step.

“The Federal government commissioned a study on pharmacare and they had an expert and task force look at what a pharmacare program should look like in Canada,” continues Bachrach. “Dr. Eric Hoskins published a report and submitted it to the government, and it lays out a roadmap for what Canada needs.”

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Email: sam.bennison@pattisonmedia.com