The cost of medication certainly is a pressing concern for many seniors, just in reviewing their histories....They may or may not have private coverage. There are huge gaps in terms of what the public system covers. As a consequence, seniors who are facing high rents or transportation challenges and the like have precious few dollars to devote to medication. It remains a paralyzing concern for many.
I believe you're talking about a national pharmacare program. It's a critical piece of infrastructure and is really a huge gap in the Canadian health care system. Proportionately, it does detrimentally impact seniors to a greater extent. Our organization has been advocating for a universal single-payer health care model.
We understand that there's an interim report out from Dr. Hoskins and that the government itself is looking at a model and putting it forward. We would encourage, from our own research, support of a single-payer universal system in order to provide a foundation for everyone, as opposed to a “fill in the gaps” system, which was I guess another proposed model. I'm happy to follow up with our particular recommendations around the financing of that and put you in touch with my colleague who did that economic modelling.