Legislative Assembly mittee on medical care, and in this connection I would first like to extend my thanks and appreciation to all those who served on this Committee. To my Deputy Minister , Dr. Curtis , to Dr. Gillis , Dr. Maloney , to Mr. Dennis the Deputy Provincial Treasurer, Mr. Cullen , to Mr. Harry Holman and Mr. Frank Zakem . All of these busy men have given of their valuable time for a study which has lasted for more than a year, and I thank them for a job carefully and well done. I feel the report itself is quite comprehensive and there is little that I can add. I, therefore, do not intend to go into the report in great detail. However, I would like to use the report and some quotations therefrom for the basis of a few comments. The historical background mentioned in the report I found quite interesting; the first effort toward the custody of care of the mentally insane in this Province took place in the years 1845, and the opening of the Charlottetown Hospital in 1879 followed by the opening of the Prince Edward Island Hospital five years later. With reference to the report, and several places in this report I note the num¬ ber of medical Doctors are mentioned. On page 3, I quote, "The ability of our present complement of physicians to meet the needs of medical services in this Province has been seriously qustioned." And again on page 32, "It is the opinion of your Com ¬ mittee that most physicians in this Province are working to capacity at present and no great increase in their output can be expected." These statements, in my opinion, are accurate and true. All serious practition¬ ers are working to capacity and may expect an increase of 30% upon the introduc¬ tion of a Medicare program, as the Report suggests. I think this is also a fair assumption: as one man expressed to me one day, "My Aunt Mary never saw a well day since she joined the ." Then it must necessarily follow that with a 30% overload of patients the quality of medical services must necessarily suffer. This is the number one objection to universal Medicare as I see it. The Report gives a very comprehensive review of those covered in the prov¬ ince by Federal and Provincial Government plans. Some 9,000 needy people are in¬ sured through by our own Department of Welfare. So the Report states that 17,000 persons are covered with Government plans, Provincial and Federal, while 4(5,000 people have voluntary insurance. This is 63,000 people, or approximately 58% of the population. Now we have to consider the other 45,000 people who are not presently covered. These are the ones that may cause some concern at the moment Would it be to their advantage to buy insurance or alternatively help finance a Government Medicare Plan ? It should be noted that the two provinces entering the Plan now have plans of their own, both supported by premiums. Considering the recent history of Hos ¬ pital Insurance in this Province, we learned that premiums are difficult to collect, largely because of lack of industrial payrolls. The Committee has recommended the introduction of a new special medical care taxation as the best means of financing the Plan, if introduced. I believe, then, that we must consider seriously the cost. What is the best and most economical system for our citizens? An examination of the Medical Care shows clearly that the Federal Gov¬ ernment will reconsider the plan in 1972. There is no certainty that the Federal Government will not "opt-out" at this time, as indeed they have in Physical Fitness and other agreements in the past. They may well pass the "baby" to the provinces. The Committee has xpressed concern on this particular point. Secondly, I think we must note that the full cost of adminstration falls on the province under the plan. This is a non-sharable item. The cost of Medicare appears to escalate so fast that no stable estimate can be made. It is like catching a flea: you put your finger on it and it jumps! The latest jump in this Province was the new physicians' Schedule of Fees as of January 1st of this year. The new schedule was not taken into account in the report. ^How¬ ever, when allowances were made for this latest increase in Doctors' fees the "guss- timate" appears to be about $4,500,000 a year, at the present level. —132—