Thank you.
Thank you very much. I get to go around again.
I want to come back to this point we've been discussing, the burden on the federal government, because it's not $20.4 billion or $19.3 billion. The public plans will kick in, and $13.1 billion of that is already covered. I disagree that a major conversion is required. These are patients who are in the system, already seeing their doctors, already getting their prescriptions at pharmacies, being reimbursed by the provinces and territories. The challenge, I think, is with the 15.6 million people employed right now in 2017—that's up considerably since October 2015, I might add—and most of them will have some degree of drug coverage through their employers. Those public and private employers spent $9 billion to insure those people.
What would you recommend? The PBO said that after the public plans there's a $7.3 billion shortfall, but the employers spent $9 billion. I'm old enough to remember when we moved from Green Shield and Blue Cross for all care, and in Ontario OHIP and the health plan kicked in, and contributions were made by employers in return for ensuring their employees made contributions.
Do you have any advice or comment on that? Should this $9 billion that the employers are spending today just be there as a windfall, or do we try to capture some portion of it, giving them a windfall but also using it to cover that part of the population?