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Help Suzanne Aucoin
Sept. 25, 2006 - The St. Catharines Standard
St. Catharines Standard
Monday September 25, 2006
Battling nonsensical health-care red tape
SUZANNE AUCOIN EDITORIAL
The overbearing bureaucracy and unresponsiveness of Ontario¹s publicly-funded
health-care system is nowhere more evident than it is in the case of Suzanne Aucoin.
As Aucoin battles terminal colorectal cancer, she has been brave enough to let The
Standard chronicle her fight.
The thought at the beginning of the project was that Standard reporter Peter Downs
would follow the 36-year-old Aucoin through the ups and downs of various treatments.
That the fight has relocated to boardrooms and that government bureaucrats have
replaced cancer as Aucoin¹s adversary is shocking.
And it¹s wrong.
But Aucoin is living the unfortunate reality of our health-care system.
She has found out time and time again, medicare is too complicated. It¹s wrought with
too many nooks and crannies.
Her latest encounter is over an intravenous drug known as Erbitux.
Erbitux is not commercially available in Ontario, but OHIP rejected Aucoin¹s request a
year ago for out of country coverage.
She subsequently found the drug available at a private clinic in West Seneca, N.Y. for
about $14,000 US per month. (Incidentally, that price tag is about $10,000 less than the
province pays for Ontarians to receive the treatment at the Roswell Park Cancer
Centre in Buffalo.)
Aucoin was also able to get the drug through a special access agreement with the
federal government. Administered at Hamilton¹s cancer centre over four months, it
cost Aucoin $21,116.70.
She spent more than $52,000 for specialized medical treatments in Hamilton and West
Seneca intended to prolong her life, and the province is refusing to reimburse her.
Canadians rightly believe our health care system is there to help us when we get sick.
We expect the proper treatments to be available to us and in those cases when it
isn¹t, the taxpayer-funded public health system is supposed to be there to help us get
to the places where the treatment is available.
As Canadians, we take pride that we have such a system in place.
But Aucoin¹s example is showing this system is broken.
She is being denied her request to be reimbursed for $31,000 spent in West Seneca
because OHIP contends the treatment was administered in a doctor¹s office and not a
hospital or licensed cancer treatment facility.
It¹s a nonsensical distinction.
The bottom line is Aucoin found a place to get treatment. The added bonus is the
treatment provided a better deal for taxpayers because it¹s cheaper than the
government¹s preferred location.
As for the $21,000 spent for the treatment in Hamilton, Aucoin is told she won¹t be
reimbursed because the treatment wasn¹t administered out of country.
Another argument that doesn¹t make any sense.
It¹s time Health Minister George Smitherman turned his attention to Suzanne Aucoin¹s
plight.
Clearly, Ontario¹s health-care system has lost its way. Gone is the concern for the
patient, it being replaced by bureaucratic red tape that endangers the lives the
system is designed to save.
St. Catharines Standard
Monday September 25, 2006
Battling nonsensical health-care red tape
SUZANNE AUCOIN EDITORIAL
The overbearing bureaucracy and unresponsiveness of Ontario¹s publicly-funded
health-care system is nowhere more evident than it is in the case of Suzanne Aucoin.
As Aucoin battles terminal colorectal cancer, she has been brave enough to let The
Standard chronicle her fight.
The thought at the beginning of the project was that Standard reporter Peter Downs
would follow the 36-year-old Aucoin through the ups and downs of various treatments.
That the fight has relocated to boardrooms and that government bureaucrats have
replaced cancer as Aucoin¹s adversary is shocking.
And it¹s wrong.
But Aucoin is living the unfortunate reality of our health-care system.
She has found out time and time again, medicare is too complicated. It¹s wrought with
too many nooks and crannies.
Her latest encounter is over an intravenous drug known as Erbitux.
Erbitux is not commercially available in Ontario, but OHIP rejected Aucoin¹s request a
year ago for out of country coverage.
She subsequently found the drug available at a private clinic in West Seneca, N.Y. for
about $14,000 US per month. (Incidentally, that price tag is about $10,000 less than the
province pays for Ontarians to receive the treatment at the Roswell Park Cancer
Centre in Buffalo.)
Aucoin was also able to get the drug through a special access agreement with the
federal government. Administered at Hamilton¹s cancer centre over four months, it
cost Aucoin $21,116.70.
She spent more than $52,000 for specialized medical treatments in Hamilton and West
Seneca intended to prolong her life, and the province is refusing to reimburse her.
Canadians rightly believe our health care system is there to help us when we get sick.
We expect the proper treatments to be available to us and in those cases when it
isn¹t, the taxpayer-funded public health system is supposed to be there to help us get
to the places where the treatment is available.
As Canadians, we take pride that we have such a system in place.
But Aucoin¹s example is showing this system is broken.
She is being denied her request to be reimbursed for $31,000 spent in West Seneca
because OHIP contends the treatment was administered in a doctor¹s office and not a
hospital or licensed cancer treatment facility.
It¹s a nonsensical distinction.
The bottom line is Aucoin found a place to get treatment. The added bonus is the
treatment provided a better deal for taxpayers because it¹s cheaper than the
government¹s preferred location.
As for the $21,000 spent for the treatment in Hamilton, Aucoin is told she won¹t be
reimbursed because the treatment wasn¹t administered out of country.
Another argument that doesn¹t make any sense.
It¹s time Health Minister George Smitherman turned his attention to Suzanne Aucoin¹s
plight.
Clearly, Ontario¹s health-care system has lost its way. Gone is the concern for the
patient, it being replaced by bureaucratic red tape that endangers the lives the
system is designed to save.