Ontario Health Insurance Act should cover Oral Chemotherapy

We the undersigned feel strongly that oral chemotherapy - pill forms of cancer treatment - must be covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Act. We are shocked that the Ontario healthcare system does NOT cover oral chemotherapy (cancer drugs administered in pill form). Ontario's Health Insurance Act R.R.O. 1990, Regulation 552 does NOT include oral chemotherapy as its list of covered medication. Ontario is a province in a country that is supposed to have universal healthcare! Ontario cancer patients who receive intravenous chemotherapy, but oral chemotherapy is not covered because it is a medication you can take at home. Oral chemotherapy can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. There are mechanisms in place to ensure the most vulnerable are not financially corrupted by oral chemotherapy: the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan and the Trillium Drug Plan. The Ontario Drug Benefit Plan ensures that many vulnerable people receive all prescriptions for free, including: people 65 years of age and older, residents of long-term care homes, residents of Homes for Special Care, and people receiving professional services under the Home Care program. The Trillium Drug Program ensures that no one is financially corrupt by covering some of the cost of drugs by ensuring no one pays more than 5% of his/her household income. But this partial cancer treatment coverage is not universal healthcare: Ontario cancer patients should have their approved treatment 100% covered by the Ontario healthcare system! This petition is to tell the Ontario government that oral chemotherapy must be covered for cancer patients, when it is Health Canada approved and approved for being prescribed in Ontario. We propose and support an amendment include oral chemotherapy under S.8(2) of the Ontario Health Insurance Act R.R.O. 1990, Regulation 552. Thank you for reading this petition.