Mr. Speaker, I have raised the issue repeatedly about access for rare disease patients. That is what I want to talk about some more. One of the ways the national pharmacare would work is this. The current architecture for drug approvals in Canada goes through CADTH first for a health technology assessment, or HTA. Then pCPA is the negotiating body on behalf of the provinces.
I know there are some Liberal members who have said the Canadian drug agency would basically do this now, but in the current architecture what is going to happen is that a drug will get approval and then not be reimbursed by the public insurers. It is happening and is going to happen in the national pharmacare system. I have examples from my riding and all across Canada of where this happens. In some cases, people are even prohibited from using a special access program, because they are told it is a drug approved in Canada, but it is not publicly reimbursed.
If the NDP thought it was important to introduce this, I would ask the member why there was no mention of rare disease patients in the motion if it is of concern to the national pharmacare system, because the architecture of the current regulatory system really disadvantages rare-disease patients' families.