Finance committee  It's important to look at the whole picture and the social determinants of health are absolutely a huge part of that. A lot of these programs have been proven, whether it's early childhood education and care or pharmacare, to actually recoup more costs. Also, I think we have to look at the health care system as more than what we have been dealing with.

Finance committee  Sorry, I just need clarification on the second part.

Finance committee  That will not happen with public pharmacare. If you look at what we are paying right now for our health care system, if you include pharmacare, pharmacare will more than pay for itself. Collectively, drug costs will go down. You don't have to go farther than the newspaper. The increased cost of drugs is in the news constantly.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think when you first look at it, any expenditure in health care looks like more of an expenditure. But when we look at the lack of a pharmacare system, it's actually very expensive on our system. You don't have to go very far to find out that the use of emergent care is significantly higher because patients are unable to pay for their medication, so they use an expensive part of our system, which is emergent care, and not what they should be using, which is the treatment.

Finance committee  I apologize. I don't have that number on me, but there is a very good paper that was put out that CFNU had instructed, and I can forward that to your office. It goes in detail about where the money comes from, and the estimate was that it would save our system between $6 billion and $8 billion.

Finance committee  Again, I apologize. I don't have that report right in front of me to pull those numbers. There are a few important factors. One is that right now we are outsourcing the responsibility of pharmacare either onto the individual or onto businesses. There are a lot of employers who supply supplementary health benefits that pay for pharmaceuticals.

Finance committee  Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. My comments today will touch on four key areas: employment insurance, infrastructure investment, health care, and early childhood education and care. The recent economic downturn in Alberta succinctly showcases a major problem with the employment insurance system—the regional variation.