Canada: Variation in Prescription Drug Benefits by Province/Territory

Canada’s national health insurance program aims to require that all residents of Canada should have hospital and physician services. The program is also referred as Medicare. However, Canada does not have a national plan; rather, it has provincial and territorial health insurance plans. These provincial plans share basic standards of coverage. Among all developed countries, Canada is the only country that does not provide access to universal coverage for prescription drugs. Canadian provinces allocate limited public subsidies for prescriptions drugs, and the majority of costs are financed either out of pocket or through private insurance.

Canada, with a population of 33 million people, is the second-largest country in the world by area. People in Canada have a higher life expectancy than most other Organisation for Economic ...