Absolutely.
That's something that comes up all the time. There's kind of this idea that, if we just try to find a way to fill the gaps for that one-third or so of Canadians who might not have coverage, that will be cheaper and it will somehow work out, but we lose all of the savings of a single-payer system if we just add new programs. We already have thousands of drug plans in this country—employer plans and public plans. They're costing us a lot of money. We're already paying to not have single-payer pharmacare when we could simply do it through one system, through a national program, through our medicare system. We could save money and provide the medicines people need to everyone.
It's clearly laid out. There's report after report that shows this: the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Dr. Hoskins.... There's so much that can be looked at to show how clearly it is true that the best model is a single-payer system, fiscally as well as in terms of the outcomes for health, so we should simply do it.