Madam Speaker, the Green Party supports this motion. It is a very good time to be moving toward universal pharmacare in our country. We know this will save our health care system money. We are the only country with a universal health care system that does not include universal pharmacare.
People who have chronic diseases and cannot afford their medicine end up with catastrophic medical issues. They end up in the hospital, which costs much more than if they had been able to get medicine provided to them through a universal single-payer pharmacare system.
We know that half the visits to emergency departments by seniors are related to them not taking the medication they need. Per capita, my riding has the largest population of people over the age of 75. Hospital officials will tell us that people need their medicines.