I think that's a really good question: What do you recommend to fix some of these problems?
I'll keep my comments focused.
First, you need people to provide the services. I think we have to look at that need the same way we do with respect to an integrated, pan-Canadian health human resources plan. Just as Dr. Adams and Dr. Makokis mentioned, it is a struggle to recruit indigenous physicians into indigenous communities to provide care to indigenous patients. That's extremely important.
Second, it's not just about comparing costs internally against the NIHB program. We also have to look at relative care between provincial and federal systems. The goal of the CMA is advocating for equitable care. This means that, when you come through a door, whether you're indigenous or non-indigenous, you receive the same care, the same sort of access and the same type of timely service.
Finally, as we look toward making changes, there are things we can learn from indigenous health systems, and there are things we can learn from medicare. We're introducing pharmacare and dental care, hopefully, into our national medicare regime. We have decades of experience on how that has worked and not worked within indigenous communities, which we can learn from. We have decades of experience on how to fix other problems that indigenous communities are going through within medicare.
Thank you.