Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to rise in the House and revisit an issue that I brought forward during question period some months ago with regard to a national pharmacare plan.
During the course of that question, I brought up the case of Mr. Lorenzen in my riding, who has paid over $25,000 for prescription medication following a surgery he went through. I am sure if we canvass the House, we would find that most members could relate exactly the same kind of story. Constituents all across this great land are having to pay out of pocket for prescription medications that in some cases are very much life-saving and alter their quality of life.
I think that when we are talking about national pharmacare, it is very helpful for us to go back in time a little. I want to take a moment to go back to the year 1997. In 1997, the election platform document from the Liberal Party of Canada included the following:
Our current system provides full coverage for institutional care, including all drugs administered during a hospital stay. Once patients go home, however, they are not guaranteed public coverage for medically necessary drugs.
This situation is plainly inconsistent with the values upon which Canadian medicare is based. It is both unfair and illogical to guarantee access to medical diagnosis but not to the associated treatment. Neither does it make economic sense. Those who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions tend only to get sicker and require more costly treatment later from the public system. The Liberal government is committed to maintaining a universal health care system, in which Canadians are assured equal access to appropriate, quality care as needed.
The Liberal Party held majority governments in 1993, 1997 and 2000. In 2004 it was reduced to a minority status, and then, of course, after the Conservatives' 10 years, it was returned with a majority in the current term.
What that underlines is that the Liberals have had a majority government for 17 of the last 26 years, and it is only just now that we are getting to the study phase of a panel of experts to revisit this issue, when we know there are Canadians who are suffering in their quality of life across this country.
I believe I was given a flippant answer back in the day when I asked this question: The Liberals said that they do not write their plans on the back of a napkin.
However, I am just simply asking the Liberals to honour their commitment to address a problem that has existed in this country since we adopted universal medicare. This was always the unfinished business. It does not make sense that once someone is released from hospital, they are left on their own. They might be lucky to have their own care plan through their employer, but it does not make sense to let them loose like that without any kind of follow-up.
My question again to the parliamentary secretary who is handling this question tonight is this: When are they going to commit to finally implementing a fully public, national, universal and comprehensive pharmacare plan that covers every single Canadian?