Not specifically, no.
We have a public health care system under financial stress. It's not adequately funded, and the aim of that system should be to try to improve the overall health of the population. Therefore, we need to have the courage to make decisions that we fund those treatments that are going to improve the health of the population, and not fund others if it means we will not be able to provide other health care interventions that would provide greater health care benefits.
If there are interventions for rare diseases—Dr. Midgley talked earlier about the initial treatment for the disease of interest that he's talked about—it probably would represent a net gain to the overall health of the population if we funded that properly through our provincial ministries. The problem is that if we fund therapies that are overly expensive and do not provide adequate gain, then the net impact is that the overall health of the population will decline.
For example, in the case of Soliris, it costs over $5 million more per lifetime for treating one patient with Soliris, compared to the current standard of care for that disease. The decision to fund is saying we value a patient with Soliris 40 times more than a patient with any other disease. That's the implication of that funding decision. It's saying we're funding a treatment whereby the net population health of Canada is declining because we're funding that treatment, and as a result we can't use those health care resources to fund other interventions that would give greater health benefits.
All I'm advocating for is that given the difficult financial constraints we're dealing with now, the decisions are made whereby we treat all Canadians equally, and we choose to fund those interventions that will increase the overall health of the population.