Canadians' Drug Spending Surpasses Military Spending

[PatrickM]

Just read this article and find it pretty interesting.  Annual prescription drug expenditures are rising at a phenomenal rate, and passed the total National Defence budget a few years ago.  This means that a typical Canadian has more of his/her money directed toward drugs then they do defence and foreign aid combined.  Now I do support health care in this country, but have we gone too far?


Drug bills rising: report

TORONTO (CP) - The amount Canadians spend on drugs is on the rise, with the tab for 2004 expected to reach $21.8 billion, an increase of 8.8 per cent over the previous year and five times the amount spent on drugs in 1985, a report released Tuesday shows.

Total drug expenditure per person in Canada for last year was expected to reach $681, said the report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Final numbers for 2003-04 are still being tallied.

The 1985-2004 report, entitled Drug Expenditure in Canada, indicated that prescribed drugs continue to be the main source of drug spending; prescription drug spending was expected to reach $18 billion for 2004, up 10.2 per cent from 2003.

Prescription drugs were projected to account for 82.5 per cent of total drug spending in Canada, up from 80.5 per cent in 2002 and 67.5 per cent in 1985.

Non-prescription drug spending was to reach $3.8 billion in 2004, a 2.7 per cent increase.

"Increased utilization, ongoing substitution of newer for older drugs and changes in the way health care is delivered - these are all factors that influence the annual increase in the national drug bill," Steve Morgan of the University of British Columbia, an institute adviser, said in a release.

"When examining this increase in drug spending, it becomes quite clear that we have a need to know more about the consequences of our national investment in this form of health-care delivery."

The Canadian Institute for Health Information is an independent, non-profit organization working to improve the health of Canadians and the health-care system through health information.

 

[PatrickM]

Oops forgot to post link.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/04/05/983334-cp.html

 

[Infanteer]

This is why I don't go to Doctors or place much faith in the medical industry.  It seems that everytime you have a problem the Doctors want to pump you full of pills with unpronounceable names and side effects like dizziness, nausea, and a second head.

What was that Zipper said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"....

 

[KevinB]

I wonder what Canada's spending on illegal drugs...

I'm sure it tops the Def budget too.

 

[oyaguy]

Drug spending has a lot to do with people in my opinion in that most people want the doctor to prescibe some magic bullet. A lot of anti-biotics are prescibed for this reason {For ear infections for example}, not because it will help you, but because it makes you feel better.

On the other hand, a lot of drugs are for conditions that for the longest time was a matter of grinning and bearing it like arthritis.

Could be worse. We as Canadians could be paying full price for our drugs.

 

[Docherty]

This makes me really mad, people just go to the doctors so they can hear what they already know from a "professional," and waste our tax dollars.

 

[Fraser.g]

Drug spending has a lot to do with people in my opinion in that most people want the doctor to prescibe some magic bullet. A lot of anti-biotics are prescibed for this reason {For ear infections for example}, not because it will help you, but because it makes you feel better.

On the other hand, a lot of drugs are for conditions that for the longest time was a matter of grinning and bearing it like arthritis.

Could be worse. We as Canadians could be paying full price for our drugs.

I do not believe it is over use of the system but missuse of it.
I don't go with the above quote on grinning and bearing problems like arthritis, there are allot of good NSAIDS out there that will help with the quality of your life and therefore allow you to continue to be a contributing member of society instead of being carried by it.

Now on to the miss use.

It costs approx $300 to register in an ER and be seen by a Doc. This does not include any tests or investigations or referrals that need to be made. This is to help pay for the staffing, infrastructure and equipment maintenance for the hospital.
Of that if the Doc is fee for service, they get around $35 per person. This varies but it is around that across Canada. If they are salaried then it goes to say that it does not matter how many they see. Their pay is the same.

If you go to a clinic or family doc they get the same $35 but out of that they have to pay their staff, rent on the building, utilities etc. The ER Doc, or any other for that matter, does not have to pay out of their $35.

So now how do you use the system?
In the UK the ERs are called Accident and Emergency Departments or A&E. They are for just that. If you have not had an accident or if this is not an Emergency then you are in the wrong place. We have to start treating ours the same way.
For those who are not getting what I am trying to explain let me put it this way.

Cold with sniffles = Chicken Soup and Tylenol
Vomiting for 1 Day = Clinic
Vomiting Blood = ER
Migraine lasting 6 hrs with no relief = ER
Migraine starting just before you came to ER = Clinic
Was hit by car = ER
Was driving car when got git = ER
Drug prescription refill = Clinic
Narcotic refill and your family doc will not give you more = Rehab
Overdose = ER
Suicide attempt = ER
Suicide = Morgue
UTI= Clinic
Hurts when you pee = Clinic
Peeing Blood = ER
Blood in poo = ER
Dildo in Stomach = ER
Unretrevable forigne object = ER
Lost condom = clinic
Assult = ER
Short of breath = ER
Chest pressure= ER
Chest pain = ER
Deep cut = ER
Fell and scraped knee = Bo Bo Strip
Seizure = ER
Check up = Clinic
Any problem that you have had for over a week and has not changed but it is now the weekend = wait for monday and go to the clinic.

This is by no means a comprehensive list but I think you get the message

GF

 

[old medic]

Dildo in Stomach = ER

Will you be producing any clinical papers on the diagnosis and treatment of this rare
but emerging health care problem ?

  ;D

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I think that was a test to see if we were still reading or just scimming........I failed till I saw your post and went back.... ;

 

[Fraser.g]

As bizzare as it seems, nope this was not a test.
He required an open lap to get the thing out.

GF

 

[medicineman]

What I would like to see is a study on how much of the defence budget goes towards over the counter medications for service members.  I think alot of people that get their stuff for free (and some of whom actually come to expect it as such) would be rather amazed to find out how much this stuff really costs in the real world.  These are usually the same people that get mad when we're in the field or deployed and we don't have the particular, special OTC they like the most in our limited pannier stocks.

As for RN PRN's talk about the ER problems we're having these days, I find it weird that you can't throw a person who walks into Emerg out who isn't an emergency case, but if you're a bona fide emergency coming in by ambulance, you can be diverted to another hospital if the one you're headed to is filled with walking and talking not so sick people.  Strange.

My pet peeves for the day. 

MM

 

[oyaguy]

To RN PRN...

Even better than a clinic, a family doctor for a lot of the non-emergencies.

About arthritis, I meant for the longest time there were no effective drugs for treating them.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

As for RN PRN's talk about the ER problems we're having these days, I find it weird that you can't throw a person who walks into Emerg out who isn't an emergency case, but if you're a bona fide emergency coming in by ambulance, you can be diverted to another hospital if the one you're headed to is filled with walking and talking not so sick people.   Strange.

When i went into emerge with a broken ankle (yes basketball is a contact sport) i was left waiting in a hallway, along with a cancer patient waiting for Kimo therapy. As i watched healthy walking people go in for chiropratic treatment, and "cold and sniffle" cases, i felt ashamed that this cancer patient wasn't getting looked after ( actually, i told the nurse to let him go before me). I think where major problems lie are in how contradictory our gov't can be. For example,  their "smoking is bad, don't smoke,"policy yet they still collect taxes off it and still pay for the operations of smokers to correct the damage of smoking.

 

[daniel h.]

Drug spending has a lot to do with people in my opinion in that most people want the doctor to prescibe some magic bullet. A lot of anti-biotics are prescibed for this reason {For ear infections for example}, not because it will help you, but because it makes you feel better.

On the other hand, a lot of drugs are for conditions that for the longest time was a matter of grinning and bearing it like arthritis.

Could be worse. We as Canadians could be paying full price for our drugs.

Full retail price. Drugs cost pennies to produce, most research in U.S. and U.K. done in public universities with public money. Only clinical trials are privately funded.

 

[daniel h.]

The health care system is overused, but not by most. We can't forget that the current "health care crisis" is smoke an mirrors as usual....the federal government went from 50% support of health care to under 15%, downloading the rest onto the provinces.

There is plenty of money--the question is, who gets it? The people, the military and the infrastructure, or the banks? I think we know what the banks want. Steady stream of interest from our government--that's the 540 billion debt problem--that's why the military gets nothing.

 

[Acorn]

medicineman makes an interesting point:

How many CF pers go to the MIR to get antacid, aspirin/tylenol, eye drops and other "over-the-counter" items - for free? Try getting your civvy Healt Plan to pay for that bottle of Maalox.

Acorn

 

[Sailing Instructor]

When i went into emerge with a broken ankle (yes basketball is a contact sport) i was left waiting in a hallway, along with a cancer patient waiting for Kimo therapy. As i watched healthy walking people go in for chiropratic treatment, and "cold and sniffle" cases, i felt ashamed that this cancer patient wasn't getting looked after ( actually, i told the nurse to let him go before me). I think where major problems lie are in how contradictory our gov't can be. For example,   their "smoking is bad, don't smoke,"policy yet they still collect taxes off it and still pay for the operations of smokers to correct the damage of smoking.

To be fair, a spinal adjustment (or whatever it is chiropractors do) & a sniffle are probably a lot easier to cure than cancer.  I'd be rather angry to wait for my cough syrup while they were curing cancer.

And cancer does bring to mind our 'health' (sic) system's dealing with cures rather than preventions.  God forbid health Canada should do something about carcinogens, rather, they focus on solutions after the damage has been done.  They are acting a bit like the surgeon after the battle, though they have the powers of the crown before the battle, i.e. they could have prevented the wounds in the first place.

 

[larry Strong]

Found this yesterday.

http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/familymedicine/hospitalist/Article%20_AvenueMagazine.htm