Key Findings
The annual cost of MS to Canada is significant, totalling more than $3.4 billion in direct health costs, productivity losses and other costs.
Recent disruptions in Canada’s health care system caused delays in both MS diagnosis and MS treatment, resulting in worse outcomes for Canadians living with MS, including more rapid disease progression and accumulation of disability. Delayed diagnosis and disrupted treatment generated an additional $578.2 million in MS-related health system expenditure, productivity losses, and lost wellbeing between 2020 and 2024.
These additional health and economic costs will continue into the future, unless we take bold action now to boost MS specialist care and invest in research to prevent MS.
Why does this matter?
Every day, people with MS wake up to adversity and do everything in their power to persevere…
The woman with progressive MS who struggles to button her shirt in the morning yet is determined to dance at her granddaughter’s wedding.
The high school athlete who ignores the tingling and numbness in his legs to rally his team to victory.
The lawyer with blurred vision and foggy thoughts. The father struggling to say his child’s name. The avid cyclist feeling her balance go.
Now add the delays in accessing health care and diagnosis to these ongoing daily challenges.
Early diagnosis and timely intervention with the most effective treatment available is key to protected brain health, preserving function, and minimizing the impact on our healthcare system.
Pandemic-related disruption will cost Canada’s health care systems more in the future, to treat a disease that could have been diagnosed earlier and treated faster.
"Living with MS is disruptive enough – but living through these challenging and disruptive times gives me extra to worry about. MS is very isolating in itself, but throw in reduced health care access and I began to feel very alone with my disease. I began to worry about “what if’s” – What if I had a relapse and couldn’t access my neurologist or couldn’t get into an emergency ward… What if I needed a mobility aid? The challenges with the health care system make it that much more stressful to manage my MS."
— Barb, Diagnosed 2011, MB
Ongoing disruptions in healthcare has led to a health services backlog and accumulation on unmet health needs for Canadians living with MS. It has led to progression of MS in many Canadians, due to delayed or halted treatment – this will impact these individuals and their families’ quality of life and livelihood.
Delays and changes to treatment can lead to irreversible disease progression and disability.
Canada has one of the world’s highest rates of MS in the world. It is the most common neurological disease among young Canadians, and it affects women at three times the rate it affects men.
Where do we go from here?
To reduce the more than $3.4 billion annual cost of MS to Canada, we need government to:
- Invest $15 million in MS research funding in partnership with MS Canada, leveraging our connections and expertise to focus and further our understanding of MS, pursue leading-edge research on repair and regeneration, and explore strategies to prevent MS (i.e. risk factors, understanding preclinical MS, and develop and test interventions to prevent MS).
- Invest funding in MS specialist care to improve timely access to diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Here’s how you can help.
We are calling on all governments to take bold action now and invest in MS research to prevent MS and improve care by boosting MS specialist care