NDP broke promise to cover cancer drugs: couple

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/06/2012 (5199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the credit card charges climb, a Winnipeg woman is asking what happened to the Selinger government’s promise to cover 100 per cent of the cost of oral cancer treatment and support drugs for people fighting the disease at home.

On Thursday, Christina Lopez said her family’s credit card debt sits at about $6,000 and it climbs each time her husband’s prescriptions are renewed. Drug costs directly related to his cancer treatment are covered by the province’s Home Cancer Drug Program, but more expensive pain-management drugs, such as morphine, are not.

She said that doesn’t jibe with what Premier Greg Selinger and Health Minister Theresa Oswald promised April 19 when they said the government would make oral cancer drugs free for Manitobans, eliminate deductibles and cover the cost of necessary support drugs.

“This was a sneaky business, I found. Manitoba, wake up, your government is not telling the truth,” Lopez said.

“These hard-boiled political types, don’t they see, don’t they smell problems a mile away if there’s a hole? And this is a big hole.”

Oswald agreed.

“First of all it should be fixed,” she said. “That’s the bottom line. We made a commitment to families that were battling cancer that we would cover oral cancer drugs and the support drugs. We need to make sure we’re fulfilling the spirit of what we announced.”

Oswald said she’s asked her officials to examine what more can be done to approve additional drugs for patients being treated at home.

“Clearly, there’s been a bit of a bump in the road here in terms of what’s being approved and not being approved,” she said. “Morphine is a reasonably, commonly used drug and so it wasn’t being picked up in the way it needed to be in order for it to be covered.”

Progressive Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger called that too little, too late.

Driedger said the NDP used the free cancer drug announcement — the New Democrats also promised it during the last election campaign — more as a “photo op” than helping cancer patients.

“I think it’s a very serious promise that’s been broken to Manitobans,” Driedger said. “There are a lot of people out there struggling with cancer and we see the government taking advantage of all of that.”

Lopez said while she appreciates Oswald’s response, she also wants to make sure the solution covers other patients. “I don’t want it to be a case of… because I’m the squeaky wheel, I get the grease,” she said.

She also said she’s not in it for the money. An employer’s health plan will cover the costs of her husband’s medication.

“There are a ton of people in Manitoba who are down on their luck and they don’t have health plans. The one drug that a down-on-their-luck cancer patient needs more than anything is pain medication because their condition is palliative.”

The Home Cancer Drug Program was created, in consultation with CancerCare Manitoba, as a way to make life easier for cancer patients in Manitoba. Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, president and CEO of CancerCare Manitoba, said the home chemotherapy drug program was initially designed to cover anti-cancer drugs and a few related medications, such as anti-nausea drugs.

“(It) was not designed to cover every drug that every cancer patient may require,” he said, noting cancer patients may have other serious illnesses.

Lopez said she decided to take action to ensure the government lives up to its word.

“About a year ago, just after (former federal NDP leader) Jack Layton died, my husband and I became card-carrying members of the NDP, but I’m actually thinking of cancelling that.”

Layton died of cancer last August.

 

— With files from Larry Kusch

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Who paid what:

 

— May 7, 2012: 60 tablets metoclopramide hydrochloride (10 mg) — regular prescription used occasionally, two at a time for anti-nausea related to cancer.

COST: $15.25 Home Cancer Drug Program

 

— May 9, 2012: 250 tablets morphine sulfate (10 mg) — regular prescription used four at a time daily as needed for breakthrough pain from metastatic cancer.

COST: $58.50 patient

 

— May 14, 2012: 60 tablets morphine sulfate SR (60 mg) — regular prescription used one at a time every 12 hours for pain from metastatic cancer.

COST: $71.65 patient

 

— May 14, 2012: 60 tablets morphine sulfate SR (100 mg) — regular prescription used one at a time every 12 hours for pain from metastatic cancer.

COST: $127.93 patient

 

— May 16, 2012: Eight tablets dexamethasone (4 mg) — one-time prescription used one at a time once daily to stimulate appetite:

COST: $18.50 Home Cancer Drug Program

 

— May 16, 2012: 10 tablets levofloxacin (500 mg) — one-time prescription used one at a time once daily to treat recent chest ailment.

COST: $46.82 patient

 

— May 18, 2012: 12 tablets dexamethasone (4 mg) — one-time prescription used one at a time once daily to stimulate appetite.

COST: $21.88 Home Cancer Drug Program

 

— May 23, 2012: 250 tablets ratio-oxycocet (5 mg / 325 mg) — regular prescription used two at a time daily as needed for breakthrough pain from metastatic cancer.

COST: $43.88 patient

 

— May 24, 2012: 240 tablets morphine sulfate SR (100 mg) — regular prescription used two at a time every 12 hours for pain from metastatic cancer.

COST: $483.33 patient

 

— TOTAL COST: $887.74

 

The breakdown:

Cost of drugs paid by the Manitoba Home Cancer Drug Program: $55.63 (or 6.27 per cent of cost of cancer drugs)

Cost of those drugs paid by the patient: $832.11 (or 93.73 per cent of cost of cancer drugs)