Mr. Speaker, I believe in a publicly funded and publicly delivered health care system. I mentioned that I have had a number of community meetings in my riding at which hundreds of people have come out to talk about health care. Those meetings are no holds barred; I tell people that they can talk about whatever they want. We have had people, including doctors, say to us that we need to look at new ways of delivering. We have had some people say that we should look at some increased aspects of private health care.
My own view is that there is absolutely no evidence that privately delivered health care is more efficient that publicly delivered health care. In fact, operation for operation comparisons between the United States and Canada indicate that Canada's system is more efficient than that of the United States. If someone were to come to me and say that we can make people in ill health better through a private system, I would say to let us have a look at the numbers. I have seen nothing to that effect.
I remain committed to a publicly funded, publicly delivered health care system, which I believe can work, is working, and can be improved upon, but it is the future of the health care system in Canada as long as we do those things that I talked about, which are to do everything we can to keep Canadians healthy, especially children, and provide better, more equitable and equal access across the country to things like home care, palliative care and pharmaceuticals. I believe in a publicly funded and publicly delivered system.