I'm sure that the variety of witnesses you've heard have been bringing various pieces of evidence to you that will need to be synthesized. I have no doubt that the results you will see are that there are significant problems of access for Canadians to essential medications across this country and that this lack of access is causing morbidity and even mortality in some circumstances.
The research study that I referred to is about six years old. It clearly shows the difference between Ontarians who are over the age of 65 and have drug insurance and those under the age of 65. In those situations, we're talking about young and middle-aged people who are suffering morbidity and mortality who are diabetic.
Other work that my colleagues have done shows that people without drug insurance are not going to see their family doctor because they know they will very likely need a prescription, so there's no point in even going to the family doctor in the first place. This is leading to bad health outcomes as well. That study is a few years old.
As the CUPE representative said, we also know from what we see in other countries that the most likely result for the aging population is private insurers seeking to de-insure the elderly. The United States has a plan for the elderly called Medicare. It covered everybody, because of market failure back in the day. Private insurers weren't covering the elderly for the things they needed. Its basic benefit package includes pharmaceuticals for everybody. I mean, we're not even competing with that.