Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Harrington, I'd like to start with you, because I think you brought up how Canadians manage their own health. I think that is the question, because whatever system you put in, I think, has to be patient-centric and we have to look after the best interests of Canadians. One of the worries I have is that if you put too many marbles in one pot.... For a pharmacare program, for example, sometimes a pharmaceutical may not be the best treatment for someone. My colleague who is an emergency room physician brought up the issue of statins for cholesterol. Sometimes the harder treatment is exercise and maybe diet. If the government is covering a statin, I'll go that route. In the long term it may not be the best benefit.
One of my concerns is market distortion. I've seen it in my own community of Oshawa, where people have really great coverage. If they go to their physician, they get the coverage for 35ยข, and that could be the over-the-counter cough medicine, or it could be something that is much more expensive. There's a bit of a distortion there, and I'm worried about that.
I was wondering if you could give us some advice on what steps could be taken within the design of any drug coverage program to ensure the patients do not seek unnecessary prescriptions when they're looking at the management of their maladies.