Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey for his thoughtful remarks regarding the need and the value of our publicly funded health care system.
What struck me about my hon. colleague's speech is that, like the Minister of Health, he never once used the term publicly delivered health care system. He focused on the importance of a publicly funded health care system.
If he had read the motion properly, the one we put forward today, he would have seen that we were calling into question the growth of the delivery of health care services by private for profit initiatives. That is where my colleague's comments fall short of the mark.
He made lots of lofty comments, with which I wholeheartedly agree, about the importance, the value and even the economic advantages of our publicly funded health care system in this country. It is a national treasure. However we are drawing attention to the fact that our national treasure is being eroded by the growth of the privately delivered health care system.
I would ask the member if he is aware of the following facts. Most of our evidence regarding for profit health care comes from the United States where there is a mix of publicly funded, private for profit and private not for profit. The evidence or the examination of figures that we have comes from the American model. Is he aware that the for profit hospitals in the United States bill about $8,500 for every discharged patient, while the non-profit hospitals bill about $7,300 for each discharged patient?