Mr. Speaker, I noticed that the member said the patient was the one paying the bill. I suspect he did not mean that exactly as I have said it. At least I hope he did not. I hope he meant that the patient, being one of the taxpayers, was one of the people paying the bill. It is my sincere hope that I am never sufficiently sick for all the taxes that I have paid into the health care system to be used for my bills. I am delighted that any addition to my taxes goes to pay for other people, and I strongly support a public system.
The member mentioned things like MRIs, radiology, drug plans and expensive things like that. He is obviously very concerned about the costs because he went on to discuss increased taxation and things of that type.
When I made a presentation to the Romanow commission on behalf of our rural caucus, I made the point that in rural areas not only was the standard of health lower than the rest of the country, the standard of health service was lower than the rest of the country, so the gulf between the two was particularly great. We emphasized prevention. We emphasized maintaining health so that we would not need the MRIs and that kind of thing, or at least that we would need them less; immunization programs; checkups for children in the schools, for example, physical checkups and dental checkups; and exercise programs, particularly for young children, being building into school programs. I know the member will say it is a provincial jurisdiction, but it is the sort of thing which if we start it earlier in a person's life, we can save billions of dollars and with the result of people living much happier and healthier lives.
What does the member think about prevention in health care?