The savings would be tremendous, mostly from the ability to coordinate the bulk buying of medications and negotiate lower costs.
I know there's been a lot of focus on the PMPRB and the problems with that. However, some experts we've talked to have said, “Look, if we get a good pharmacare program in place, those venues become less important to get the costs down because of our bulk buying.”
It could be in terms of $5 billion a year that governments would be saving on the cost of drugs. That's money that would be used elsewhere within the health care envelope.