Thank you very much.
Thank you to everyone for coming.
Dr. Perry, I loved your description of yourself as a recovering politician. I've been referring to myself as a “recovering ER doc”. It was my experience, the things that we couldn't help in the department, that pretty much got me thinking of doing this.
Like Ms. Silas, I am acutely aware of the effects of what happens when people can't afford their medications. Most of my career was in an inner-city hospital, with lots of poverty. People were coming in life-threateningly ill because they couldn't afford their insulin. Some were ending up on dialysis because they chronically couldn't afford their insulin. It was these sorts of things.
I know there is a good opportunity for improved outcomes and increased health care savings. We talk a lot about savings to the health care system. Someone pointed out that we shouldn't be talking about how much we save but about how it's the right thing to do. I am the first to agree with that. However, we do have a publicly funded system that has only so much money. We have to make a case that it is cost-effective, and from the testimony I heard today, it sounds as though it is, in fact. It sounds like the savings to the health care system would to a great extent offset the cost of putting this in.
I just wanted to confirm what you said, Ms. Yale, about how patients should have the choice of what works best. On the choice of medication, would you agree that if it's a more expensive medication, there should be evidence that this more expensive drug is more effective, has fewer or comparable side effects, and there should be good scientific evidence to support that?