In my view, the scientific evidence does point to the fact that we would save money collectively if we had a national formulary and some sort of a program whereby the provinces were asked to maintain consistent standards, or there was a national standard.
Going back to the points that Katherine made a few moments ago, one way of putting it is that if some Canadians get a good deal by being in the public system, don't we want every Canadian to get a good deal by being in the public system?
I would argue that we do and we know in Canada that people who are not insured at all get the worst deal. We also know that we can put in place a set of principles to make sure that we are making the best possible decisions about which drugs get onto publicly funded formularies and which drugs don't. Those principles should be transparent. They should be vetted with decision-makers and, most importantly, vetted with the public and with patients so that we're not disadvantaging people with rare diseases, or disadvantaging people who have certain conditions versus other conditions.
I share Katherine's view, and I think the view of the member who asked the question, that there are pros and cons to these confidential pricing arrangements, that in the current environment the pros likely outweigh the cons, but it is also possible for governments to put in place arrangements to make sure that those deals are being appropriately scrutinized to ensure that Canadians are getting value for money.