Mr. Speaker, according to a study done by the Commonwealth Fund, about 8% of Canadians had to skip doses of their medicine because of the cost. Although there is room for improvement, this is on par with Germany, where about 8% of people skip their drugs; and it is notably better than France, at 11%; Australia, 14%; and New Zealand, 18%. These are all countries with national pharmacare programs. We only have a number of provinces with pharmacare programs, and yet we have one of the smallest percentages of people who are missing out.
Could the member explain why she thinks there is a difference between Canada and the countries that already have national pharmacare programs?