The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Households headed by seniors report expenditures on pharmaceutical drugs that are well above the national average. More than three-quarters of households with at least one senior said they spent just over $500 on medications, about 1.2 per cent of their total household spending in 2002. Prescription drugs comprise the largest portion of out-of-pocket health care spending for senior households. In 2002, more than one quarter (27.3 per cent) of their health care budget was allocated to pharmaceuticals, compared with 17.7 per cent for households that had no seniors. For seniors living alone, pharmaceuticals accounted for an even higher 29.0 per cent of their health care budget. Seniors are considered the most vulnerable households because they are less likely to have private drug-insurance, and more likely to have chronic health problems requiring regular medication. All provinces have introduced some form of drug plan for those 65 and over. Even so, seniors are still more likely to report higher-than-average out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs.
