NDP upset over eye drug policy

Queen’s Park - New Democrat Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath blasted the McGuinty government for “sentencing some seniors to a life of blindness” by failing to provide a new breakthrough drug to all 40,000 Ontarians who have the eye disease called age-related wet macular degeneration (AMD).
Yesterday the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care announced Ontario’s approval of the drug, Lucentis, under OHIP - but only for cases of the disease diagnosed with the past three months.
“This decision is extremely disappointing news for people who’ve suffered this debilitating disease for more than three months,” Horwath said. “It’s really quite disgusting that the McGuinty government is condoning a two-tier approach to the treatment of a disease that can cause blindness.”
In Hamilton, hundreds of seniors who have suffered the disease will not have access to the newly approved treatment, which retards vision loss in 90 per cent of all cases. Horwath noted that treatment enables people with AMD, most of them seniors, to keep their independence, mobility and dignity.
Horwath noted that Quebec, which approved Lucentis treatments for coverage in 2007, covers all cases of the disease.
“Ontario’s program should mirror Quebec’s,” said Horwath, who has been trying to help Hamilton seniors gain access to the treatment. “Everyone who needs Lucentis should be covered. It’s the right thing to do.”
“It is just plain cruel to deny people the opportunity to save their eyesight and to abandon those who are suffering. The McGuinty government must immediately announce an end to the discrimination that is inherent in their plan to fund treatment for some and not others.”