Yes, I totally agree. I think part of doing better in the future in managing a crisis like this means doing better in terms of providing services for chronic care.
I want to direct my next question to Ms. Benard from the Canadian Health Coalition.
Advocating for both universal, publicly funded pharmacare and presumably universal, publicly funded long-term care, the questions arise: Can we afford one? Can we afford both?
I'm not an economist, but I gather, having listened to her, that some of the arguments made were that for one thing, there are economies of scale and buying in bulk reduces the costs of medications. She also made the argument that it's cheaper to have people take their medications and thus avoid going to the hospital than not taking their medications and going to the hospital. That actually costs a lot more money. Presumably a nationally funded pharmacare system would also allow the money that a lot of people don't get from their employer, because it's going into their drug plan, to go into a nationally funded system. I think the argument you would make is that it is affordable and maybe it's even cheaper to have a nationally funded pharmacare program.
How about a universal, publicly funded long-term care program? Is that something that's affordable? Again, presumably some of the money going into that system is money that individuals currently pay out of pocket as they become older, and if they have money, they have to pay to be in these institutions. Do you think a national, universal, publicly funded long-term care program is financially feasible?