“We believe this is the best way forward,” she told reporters at Gilda’s Club, a downtown Toronto cancer support agency named after late actress Gilda Radner. Take-home cancer drugs will be covered for more Ontarians under OHIP if the New Democrats win the June 7 election , party leader Andrea Horwath said Monday, a promise that will cost the provincial treasury an estimated $42 million a year. Ontario’s health ministry covers the cost of intravenous cancer drugs administered in hospital and some take-home treatments, but patient groups have long been pushing Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government for more help on this front. “Expanding to the level proposed by the NDP could cost up to $300 million annually,” said the statement, which noted Ontario now spends $467 million a year on take-home cancer drugs and a new drug funding program that covers injectable chemotherapy for outpatients. Ontarians who are not covered for take-home cancer drugs can now apply for help under an exceptional access program through their doctors.

Source: thestar April 30, 2018 16:30 UTC