Mr. Chairman, before I start my speech, I was a little worried that we had a bit of a problem in the House. The member for Yellowhead seems to be hallucinating in terms of the numbers.
I am pleased to take part in tonight's take note debate on health care as we look toward the completion of the Romanow commission. Mr. Romanow stated:
Canadians themselves are the ultimate custodians of medicare. Not politicians. Not royal commissions. Canadians.
I agree with the statement made by Commissioner Romanow. I also agree that our role is very important. I will focus my remarks to give some voice to the residents of my riding who support a very strong federal role in the health care system.
The Romanow commission is about options. It is about discussing with the public, health care professionals, patients and the full cross-section of stakeholders what kind of health care system Canadians want and are committed to support.
In this debate we have seen some facts. Yes, we will disagree, sometimes along partisan political lines, sometimes on principle. However, this debate is starting to come up with some ideas to give us focus.
What direction do we want to go in? In my view, there has been a drift toward a two tier health care system. The one which ultimately sees a United States model imposed upon the Canadian landscape is one direction most Canadians are opposed to, and one which has been expressed to the Romanow commission. In terms of wanting a strong, federally funded system let us look at the facts. Why is the opposition moving toward the United States model?
The United States spends 14% of GDP on health care. Canada on the other hand spends 9.3% of GDP on health care. The cost per person for health care in the United States is $3,701 U.S. The cost per person for health care in Canada is $2,050 U.S. There are 43 million Americans who have no coverage at all while millions more are not adequately covered. Every Canadian is covered. One study found that in 1997 Canadians paid $270 U.S. per person for health care administration and overhead. Americans paid $615 U.S. per person.
I lay out those facts to relay that the solutions some people are proposing in terms of moving to the United States system of health care is not the way we ought to be going.
Alllow me to give a perspective from a resident of my riding. Joyce Taylor, who wrote me on June 4 stated:
I wish to add my voice, as one who has experienced non-medical coverage for many years in the long distant past, consequently I would not like my grandchildren to suffer my experiences of anxiety and worry over the health of their children.
She explained the difficulty her family faced. She also explained what happened when she and her husband were in Florida recently and a man collapsed in front of them. She said:
My husband suspected the man was having either a heart attack or angina. He attempted to help him and asked me to run and call an ambulance, the man begged me not [to] call any medical aid for him because he was worried about the expense. His condition certainly was not helped by worrying about paying his medical bills.
She went on to say:
I believe as many Canadians do, that health care should be universal and not be commercialized for profit.
We cannot talk about the other place but I am worried about some of the statements made by the chair of the committee over there that is looking at health care in terms of moving us toward a privatized health care system.
Where do we go from here? The former minister of health talked about a report card. That is absolutely essential. Before we can deal with a problem or spend money, we have to understand where the money is going. It is amazing that with all the money we spend on health care in Canada we do not have comparisons. We do not know where every dollar is going.
If we had that kind of report card, a comparison could be done between rural and urban areas and we could see where the problems are. We could do a comparison between one province and another. Maybe one province is doing something right and another is doing something wrong. We could compare one hospital to another. We have to have greater accountability. We have to know where every dollar is going in the health care system.
Greater effort must be placed on caregivers themselves, in particular nurses, the people who work on the hospital floors. With the financial crunch the health care system is facing, the lives of nurses have been made more difficult.
A wing has been closed at the QEH hospital in Charlottetown. I find it amazingly strange that in that wing I now see offices and more managers. I do not see more people who do the actual work on the floor. As one nurse told me tonight “Any important event is not important because you are a nurse”. She made that statement because nurses are finding it extremely difficult to get the quality of life they require.
I would also like to speak to drug costs. The greatest increase in costs the health care system is facing now is the cost of drugs. We have to seriously look at the patented medicines regulations. What is wrong with them? The automatic 24 month injunction under the patented medicines regulations of Canada's Patent Act allows brand name pharmaceutical companies to prolong their market monopolies by simply alleging patent infringement against generic manufacturers. That adds substantially to our costs.
As the regulations stand, no generic drug can be approved by Health Canada until any claim of alleged patent infringement is decided in court. The regulations withhold Health Canada approval not when a patent is actually infringed but when the brand name company says it might be. Clearly this provides enormous financial incentive to brand name companies to allege patent infringement regardless of the possible outcome of the litigation.
Even when the generic manufacturer wins, which has happened in about 80% of the cases since the last amendments were made to the regulations in 1998, the generic drug is still kept off the market through lengthy and costly litigation often for years past the expiry of the original patent. We must deal with that and try to get the cheaper generic drugs on the market.
The pharmaceutical industry has found a way through the use of patents and legal means to abuse the intent of the patent regulations. That definitely must be addressed.
There is a lot of rhetoric around the health care issue. We heard it a moment ago when the member for Yellowhead talked about spending. The fact is that the federal government has increased spending for health care. In 1997 CHST transfers to Prince Edward Island stood at only $118 million. As a direct result of the government's sound financial management in the year 2002-03, transfers to Prince Edward Island will reach $158 million. That is a substantial increase.
The point I want to make, and others have made it before me, is that it is not just a question of more money. We have seen reports this week in the press stating that the extra money the federal government has extended to the provinces for health care equipment was not necessarily spent on health care. Coming back to my point earlier on report cards and accountability, it is important that the federal dollars that go into the health care system be accounted for and used for what they were intended.