That's right. We didn't just come up with those numbers ourselves. A report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer had some conservative estimates in it. Some people say it would even be upwards of $11 billion a year. It depends, I think, on the discounts we could get on the prescription medications, but the savings would be substantial. In part, as you highlighted, it's because we would be saving money in other areas of the health care system as well, so the government would be saving money in that way.
In terms of a universal public long-term care and home care program, I'm not an economist either, but I would say that it really is a question of priorities. I think we've seen the consequences of the current state of long-term care in this country. I don't think anyone would think that this is acceptable. There's some early data suggesting that there are more deaths in for-profit long-term care facilities than publicly run not-for-profit facilities.
Again, it's a question of priorities. I do think that when the government decides it's an issue that it's going to take on and make a priority, which I think is what seniors really deserve here, then we can find the funding for it. Where there's a will, there's a way.