Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question about what to do with the term “medically necessary”. Roy Romanow looked at that very carefully throughout 15 months of consultations. I believe his recommendations address the concerns about the definitional problem around the term “medically necessary”. I believe that he proposes a very productive way to deal with this problem, which is in line with the concerns of provinces.
He proposes a coordinated national strategy to be addressed, to be a focus in terms of future work, through a national council on health care and a national drug agency as two examples of how one can coordinate efforts through all our jurisdictions, at all levels, and come up with broad standards, programs and provisions that will ensure that we are all operating from the same book and we are all basing our decisions on science and evidence.
I think Romanow recognizes that it is not for him or for politicians to define what is medically necessary. It is the work of professionals, doctors, nurses, health advocates, researchers and scientists to give us the evidence. It is the role of government to use the evidence in the most effective way. What has been clearly lacking is the federal government's refusal to actually provide that kind of leadership and coordination.
One of the most significant recommendations of his report is that there be a national coordinated strategy for something as basic as reviewing the safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness of drugs, something all premiers wanted when they met. The reason they took some of this action into their hands was the failure of the federal government to act.
Furthermore, he recommends a national formulary so we can work together and avoid competing among each other in terms of drugs being promoted by pharmaceutical drug companies, sometimes without reason and sometimes just because it means bigger profit margins.
We have an opportunity now to be very responsible and effective in our decision making. I would suggest that this recommendation is one of the most significant, in terms of the Roy Romanow report, and an area of top priority for the federal government.