Last fall, an analysis by the parliamentary budget officer estimated national pharma care would carry a hefty cost in the neighbourhood of $20 billion a year. That's about one percentage point of Canada's gross domestic product and twice Ottawa's annual deficit projections in each of the next few years.
Page said there's a solid argument to be made for national pharma care because it would help Canadians save significantly on their out-of-pocket drug expenses and create more consistency in terms of health costs across the country. The 2017 parliamentary budget office study estimated such a plan would save Canadians more than $4 billion every year on prescriptions.
But Page said Ottawa's books are already facing a difficult fiscal situation and warned the federal balance sheet would become unsustainable if it assumed the full cost of such a program.
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