Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today.
I have some data here before me. One in four Canadians say that they or someone in their household cannot afford to take their prescribed medications, resulting in skipped doses, split pills, or unfilled prescriptions. The source for that is the Angus Reid Institute, which conducted a survey in July 2015, a year ago.
Number two is that on an annual basis, approximately one in 10 Canadians do not fill their prescriptions at all because of cost. My source for that is Michael Law et al. in an article that was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in February 2012, four years ago.
Finally, Canadians spend $6 billion a year out of pocket on prescription drugs. That's 22% of total spending on all drugs, and my source for that is Pharma 2020's quite well-known peer-reviewed article that was written in July 2015 by a couple of pre-eminent Canadian health economists.
My question is this: does anybody on this panel doubt that there are Canadians right now in this country who are not able to fill their medication prescriptions because of cost? Does anybody doubt that?
Ms. Pasma, do you doubt that?