Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
It's such a pleasure to be here with the committee.
I am extremely grateful for the work the committee is doing on this important issue. It is essential that Canadians have access to the medication they need. It's a fundamental aspect of our health care system.
First of all, I'd like to thank the member for Vancouver Kingsway for his work.
I think it's an excellent example of how, when we work together as parliamentarians and seek solutions to the difficult issues that are in front of us, we can find solutions.
I want to also thank the now-health critic, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby and the House leader. Both as a House leader and as a health minister, I've had a chance to work with him in his different roles. I thank him for his work.
Of course, within our own caucus, I want to thank the member for Brampton South, who has really been extraordinary in her advocacy.
Of course, there are so many that I could use the full five minutes. However, I'm going to focus today on drugs. We could talk about all the things we're doing on health, but let's talk specifically about medication.
There are 1.1 million Canadians who aren't insured and about one in five who are under-insured. In a very practical sense, that means they don't have access to the medicine they need.
Today in question period, Mr. Chair, we were talking about your home province of P.E.I. and the difference it makes for the folks—for islanders—to be able to afford their medication and how critical that is, not just as a function of affordability but also as a matter of dignity and a matter of prevention.
Let's just take diabetes in the first example. Some folks ask, “Why diabetes?” This is so fundamental to stopping so many other chronic diseases and illnesses.
Do you know that about 70% of chronic diseases and illnesses are preventable? We're taking historic action to deal with the crisis in primary care and to make sure people have access to the doctors and nurses they need.
Making sure we're upstream so that somebody doesn't get sick in the first place is so critically important. When somebody has access to the diabetes medication they need, what does that mean? It means they don't wind up with heart disease or a stroke. They don't wind up with the loss of a limb, or dying. That's fundamentally important as a matter of social justice.
It also is fundamentally important as a matter of savings. We know that about 25% of folks with diabetes right now are saying that cost is a major factor for them in sticking to a regime of taking the medication they need.
You can focus on problems and critiques or you can focus on solutions. That's what this bill does. It says we'll work with provinces and territories on creating a baseline. When we're looking at that formulary, that's a minimum, not a maximum. Let's be very clear that everything we're doing here is additive. It's working with provinces. Nobody is going to lose coverage. This is all about expanding coverage and making sure that patients have choice and that they get the medication they need.
Let's talk about sexual health as well for a second.
We need to have a conversation in this country around sexual and reproductive health, to be able to say that every woman in every part of this country has the ability to choose the reproductive medicines they need to take control of their reproductive and sexual health and futures. To me, that is fundamental. I hope it sparks a general conversation about sexual health in this country and about sex being something that is affirming and makes you grow stronger, not something that's used as a tool for shame and pain and hurt.
As I look at this plan, as I was saying today in the House, there are people who say that it's too much to hope for: Don't hope for dental care. Don't hope for pharmacare. Just give up. Go away.
Well, they said that about dental care, and yesterday at noon we crossed the point of 100,000 seniors getting dental care. To put that in perspective, I was in Vanier talking to a denturist about a patient who for 41 years had the same set of dentures. Next week she'll be getting a new pair of dentures for the first time. That means she won't be crushing food in her mouth with plastic plates. She will be afforded the dignity of teeth in her mouth. This is real stuff that we're doing.
There are people right now waiting for the contraceptives they need for their sexual and reproductive health. They're waiting for the diabetes medication they need. I was talking to Sarah in a diabetes clinic here about what that will mean for people avoiding illness, and about not seeing patients who are reusing syringes and getting blood-borne diseases because they don't have access.
This opens the door for us to negotiate with provinces to make sure that everybody gets that coverage. It will have a huge impact in terms of dignity, social justice, prevention and cost avoidance. I am exceptionally excited to talk about it today.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
