Posted by Michael Wonder on 13 Feb 2018
Almost 1 million Canadians give up food, heat to afford prescriptions: study
13 February 2018 - 968,000 people skimped on necessities to pay for their medicine in 2016, researchers find.
Nearly one million Canadians spent less on necessities like food and heat to afford their prescriptions in 2016, according to a new study.
The paper, published Tuesday, found that 730,000 people skimped on food and another 238,000 spent less on heating their home — a total of 968,000 people.
"We knew lots of Canadians were having trouble paying for medication," said Michael Law, lead author on the paper and associate professor in UBC's school of population and public health.
"Now we know they are trading off other everyday necessities in order to pay for prescription drugs."
