Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question is a good one. He is absolutely right. The number one driver of health care costs in the last year was the 9.1% increase in drug costs. When we really break that down does it mean the cost of drugs have risen higher or that utilization has gone up?
I believe the utilization, unquestionably, is the number one reason that the costs have risen. Will that change in the coming years? I would suggest that it probably will not because more drugs in the chain now are about to be approved than we have ever seen before.
I do not believe we can stop it that way. We cannot hold back the tide of new drugs. However we can add efficiencies within the system and we can put in place a regulatory body so that those drugs that are being used are not misused. I see a bigger problem in the misuse of drugs. We must address the issue of the number of individuals who are addicted to prescription drugs.
The drug problem is multi-pronged and there are many different areas we can go on that. The member is absolutely right when he says that it is one of the big problems we have to tackle. I see absolutely no leadership on that from the government,.