Pill Poppers Are Just as Common in Canada as America: Survey

(Bloomberg) -- No matter whether you live in a country with socialized medicine or not, you’ll mostly likely take drugs -- and a fair amount of them.

Nearly 70% of Canadian and American adults ages 40-79 used at least one prescription drug in the past 30 days, according to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics. This is despite the two countries having different health care models.

Canada provides publicly funded health care to all residents, while the U.S. runs mainly on a private system with publicly funded programs for the elderly, disabled and poor. The U.S. system doesn’t regulate the price of drugs and spends more per person on medicine than anywhere else in the world.

In Canada, drug prices are also high relative to other countries. But the federal government is working toward lowering them. Last week, the Canadian government announced that new regulations to reduce drug prices will go into effect July 1, 2020.

Now, the U.S. is looking to Canada to help stem drug price gouging. President Donald Trump has plans to lower prices by importing drugs from its northern neighbor.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shelly Hagan in New York at shagan9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Chris Middleton, Chris Fournier

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