There's no doubt it will save Canadians money at the end of the day, because there's only one taxpayer. Only one source of money goes into buying drugs today.
In the provinces there has been talk about catastrophic drug coverage as being at least a minimum safety net. That requires that every year people with chronic illnesses pay 3% to 10% of their household income on prescription drugs before benefits kick in.
The cost of a public pharmacare system, in moving money around into such a system by way of federal funding, would be approximately the equivalent of less than one-half of one per cent of taxable income, one-sixth the amount that we think of as a reasonable deductible under a public drug plan. It wouldn't be that dramatic as a way to move money around.