Ont. cancer patients say they pay thousands of dollars for life-saving drugs

No public or private health insurance plan could afford to pay for all of the latest cancer drugs that come on the market, Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said Wednesday, following criticism from cancer patients who say they've been forced to pay for expensive, life-saving drugs not covered by the province.

Ontario has more than doubled spending on new cancer drugs, but it would be impossible to cover every new medication that is developed, Smitherman said, describing the province's approval system as the best in the country.
"In a world where there will be a new product available every day - which sometimes is offering very, very modest enhancements to life, measured sometimes in days - it's going to be very, very challenging for any insurance system, public or otherwise, to be in a position to buy every product that is out there," he said.

The Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada says many patients have complained that they were forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars for drugs recommended by their doctors that are not covered by the provincial health insurance plan.

"I must say I was stunned at the prospect of a $32,000 personal expenditure for an approved drug to be administered in a hospital," said Roman Gawur, 57, of Toronto, who was diagnosed with colon cancer last October.

"I guess this health card was not really all that good after all. What I really needed was my Visa card."

Joaquim Teotonio, 63, of Mississauga, said he had to pay out more than $40,000 in the past year for the drug Avastin to treat his colorectal cancer.

"It's bad enough to have this terrible disease without having to worry about drug accessibility," said Teotonio.

"I cannot accept the fact that this government is denying me a right of accessibility to which I and every Ontario citizen is entitled."

Wendy Mundell of Burlington, who was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer in January 2006, said she wanted to know why the government felt her life was not worth the $18,000 she was billed for Avastin.

"It became clear to me that early on the drugs I needed to fight my cancer were not being provided by a universal health care system that I as a Canadian have been taught to be so proud of," said Mundell.

"I'm a Canadian first and foremost - I happen to live in Ontario. Who would have thought that this would affect the type of treatment that would be available to me?"

Smitherman said he wants to explore ways to lower the cost of expensive new drugs that aren't covered by OHIP, but added he would look for ways to have hospitals help ease the financial pain of administering cancer medications like Avastin.

"If we're honest about it, and we say that not every drug is going to be available in a public system, are there ways that the foundation of the public system could be better used to lower the cost for people," he mused.

"I can't imagine an environment, and I can't imagine leadership under any political party here at Queen's Park, that could really, honestly offer a solution that said every time there's a new cancer drug available on the market that a public system could pay for it."

But Mundell said her and others feel they are being denied a drug that could extend their lives and that is offered to cancer patients in many other countries.

"The prognosis of a stage-4 colon cancer patient is not promising," she said.

"I strongly feel this is a moral issue. How does the government of Ontario have the audacity to make the choices that deny their citizens the recommended standard of care that is offered in other G8 countries?"