Again, thank you for this opportunity to make a presentation. I'm going to briefly touch on three areas.
The first of those is home care. Home care helps people maintain health and independence in their homes and in their communities. It reduces the need for long-term care. It facilitates the appropriate use of community services, and recognizes and supplements the care provided by family, friends, and other volunteer caregivers. Home care helps to reduce the overall costs to the health system and to communities. We believe it should be included as part of the Canada Health Act to ensure consistent and comprehensive services being provided across the country, accessible to all who need them.
The second point I'd like to touch on is that we believe a national pharmacare program would provide universal access to needed medications, fair distribution of the costs of prescription drugs, and safe and appropriate prescribing, and would maximize the health benefits per dollar spent. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to the financial burden of prescription costs with many of them living on fixed incomes and faced with the need for increased prescription medications.
The third point is that we believe the government should expand and enhance CPP, OAS, and GIS. An adequate income for all is key to ensuring health, well-being, and quality of life for older adults, and it is the way to ensure that they are able to continue to be active contributing participants in the life of their communities. Increases to these basic pension sources of income for older adults are the most effective way to ensure that all Canadians have an adequate income in their retirement.
Thank you for your time.