Free cancer medications announced

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/04/2012 (5300 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Michael Geiger-Wolf wants to keep coaching his kids’ soccer teams and, with the province’s new program that provides cancer drugs free of charge, he might not miss any games this season.

Geiger-Wolf, 47, fought cancer in 2003 and is about to go into a second round of chemotherapy, having been diagnosed with cancer again last summer.

Nine years ago, he was given a 25 per cent chance of living. This time, doctors tell him he’ll beat the cancer again, no problem.

In his first battle with cancer, Geiger-Wolf said his treatment regimen was sometimes decided based on the cost of his support drugs, such as anti-nausea medication.

“My cancer drugs could cost me as much as $20,000 a year,” he said. “I can remember during my first fight waking up in the morning and thinking, ‘How sick do I feel today? Do I feel $10-pill sick or do I feel $300-pill sick?’ On many occasions, I chose to be sick rather than pay for that pill.”

He said with the new government program that pays the full cost of oral cancer treatment and support drugs, that won’t happen in his second battle with the disease. The program also allows patients to get cancer treatment in their homes.

The Home Cancer Drug Program was made official by Premier Greg Selinger and Health Minister Theresa Oswald at an event Thursday at the Canadian Cancer Society. It was promised by the NDP in the fall election campaign and announced in Tuesday’s budget.

The lion’s share of the program will cost $7 million, but the province has also budgeted more than $3 million in additional funding to extend CancerCare hubs in the province, add more pathology-lab testing services and make Champix smoking-cessation medication available through Pharmacare.

“We go into politics to make life better for people,” Selinger said of the free-drug program. “This is a very practical, concrete example of how we can do that.”

Selinger said the province hopes to save money on cancer and chemotherapy treatment, as fewer Manitobans will need treatment in hospital. The program will also cut down on the amount of travel many patients face getting treatment in hospital.

About 4,000 Manitobans receive such treatment. An estimated 6,100 Manitobans will be diagnosed with cancer this year.

Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, president and CEO of CancerCare Manitoba, said the free-drug program will reduce the stress of the high cost of treatment for patients and their families.

“This will also allow close monitoring of some of these very expensive drugs so that we can make sure that they are used appropriately and also the patients are meticulously followed. Just because you take some of these drugs now by mouth does not mean that you do not need the close monitoring,” Dhaliwal said.

To enrol in the program, contact CancerCare Manitoba. More information is available at www.cancercare.mb.ca/

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca