Manitoba Pharmacare:  Facing the Challenge

Prescription drugs are an integral part of delivering effective health care and providing a high quality of life for Manitobans. The province’s Pharmacare program ensures Manitobans can afford this important health care service.

We all know someone who enjoys a better quality of life as a result of prescription drugs. From arthritis to high blood pressure and from diabetes to asthma, prescription drugs have become a key part of our health care system. The benefits of prescription drugs will continue to increase as research provides daily advances in drug-related care. Manitoba Pharmacare must be strengthened so it can continue to provide Manitobans with access to these drugs.

Due to the increasing cost of prescription drugs, Manitoba Pharmacare is facing serious challenges. Prescription drugs are the single fastest growing cost in health care. In just five years, Manitoba Pharmacare’s budget has more than doubled – going from $62 million in 1998/99 to $172 million in 2003/04. Since 1998, the number of Manitoba families benefiting from Pharmacare has increased by more than 50 per cent from 56,375 to 87,000.

All Manitobans have a stake in protecting our Pharmacare system. Unless changes are made, Pharmacare could collapse leaving thousands of Manitobans to face the costs of rapidly increasing prescription drugs on their own.

A total of 956 new drugs have been added to Pharmacare over the past five years. This table shows the financial impact of just three of these new drugs.

On a per capita basis, the Manitoba government spends the third most on prescribed drugs in Canada (after Ontario and Quebec).

Source:  Drug Expenditures in Canada 1995-2002
The Canadian Institute for Health Information, April 23, 2003