Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the question because it is a fundamental issue that has to be debated in the whole discussion on the future of health care.
I want to say first that I very much worry about our national health care system and our medicare model being dissolved into a patchwork system for which their is lack of portability and continuity.
I think we can achieve the desired changes in our health care system through national leadership, national goals and national funding without forsaking the important role of the provincial and local governments in the delivery and provision of health care services.
The recent health ministers conference is a case in point. Health ministers came together and agreed to establish a national system to review new drugs coming on to the market so that they could pursue a co-ordinated approach thereby saving the system money. They did that because the federal government abdicated its responsibility. It refused to do what it had long promised to do, which was to establish a national pharmacare program and to reduce patent protection for brand name pharmaceutical drugs.
There is a need for national standards but I think it could be done in a way the member would agree with. It could be done in collaboration with provincial governments, with delivery at the local level, with the advice of experts in the field and with the involvement of citizens in the decision making process.