Madam Speaker, the member for Macleod beseeched members of the New Democratic Party to accept the reality that private spending is now greater as a proportion of health care spending in the country than what the federal government is spending; in other words, what started out as a 50:50 partnership between the federal government and the provincial governments has now dropped to below 14%. The member for Macleod is absolutely right when he says that a big part of the spending on health care has now been shifted onto the shoulders of families who are sick. It is like a tax on the sick and the elderly.
I hope the minister understands why the New Democratic Party will not accept that as reality. That is as a very unhappy and unfortunate outcome of the federal Liberal government's withdrawal from its responsibility to adequately fund the health care partnership on a 50:50 basis.
The member speaks about how many of these additional expenses are paid for privately and that he accepts that. Does the member for Macleod accept the recommendations of the National Forum on Health which reported to the government prior to the 1997 election and urged that pharmacare costs be contained and that pharmacare and home care both be moved into place as part of the integrated universal public health care system? Clearly the government does not accept those recommendations, but does the spokesperson for the Reform Party on this issue in debate this morning accept it?