Thank you all for coming.
I have a very quick comment to Ms. Harris.
Thank you. I know how busy it is to be a medical student. I graduated in 1993, and for you to have the time to do this with your studies is a tremendous accomplishment.
Regarding the heartbreaking story that you told, I'll tell you that after 20 years of medical practice, you will see that on a weekly if not a daily basis depending on your practice, which is one of the reasons I am now in this new career.
In regard to diabetes, this is something I've been using in many of my examples, and again, from my practice. I practised emergency medicine in an inner-city hospital. There was a very poor population and a high number of aboriginal patients. We know the rate of diabetes in that population. I see the costs of non-compliance; they are acute. I know that people with severe DKA, diabetic ketoacidosis, will often end up in the intensive care unit, and we know how expensive that is. Then add in amputations, heart attacks, strokes, and dialysis.
I may be asking a question that has already come to you in a different way. Just in relation to this disease, if you look at what non-compliant patients, the ones who are non-compliant because they can't afford it, are costing the system in medical costs compared to what it would cost to make sure that everyone had their medication paid for by a universal system, would there be a balance? Would it still be costly to be supplying everyone with their insulin, or would that be more or less offset by these savings to the system?