What we know about individuals who have MS is that they often present with what we call relapsing or remitting forms of MS. Somebody can be quite well in one period of their life, and the next month, it could be a totally different story.
We've been asking for a reform to reduce the number of hours to qualify for EI so that people can manage an often episodic form of their disease and get enough hours to qualify for EI. The request has been to drop the numbers of hours from 600 to 400.
It's a real challenge for individuals living with episodic forms of the disease because they don't need the same benefits all of the time. Some individuals will progress and pull out of the workforce. We also know that there's a very high percentage of individuals with MS who, at some point in their life, are going to be in need of support structures because they're just not well enough to contribute to the workforce, yet they don't want to come out completely. They don't want it to be a binary system in which you're in or you're out.