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Admiral Beez said:
Many here I think assume the rest of the province is like them, and that anyone with different mindset is from a small group of nut bars.
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Au contraire, I know most people are not like me and that people with a different mindset vastly outnumber me thus probably making me the nutbar.
 
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I'm not sure if Ford is distancing himself on his desire to pave over the greenbelt or the fact that he got caught saying it.

I had a discussion yesterday in our driveway with a canvasser for our local PC candidate. Of course he said all the 'yea our team' stuff but did say that Ford was a problem, but in his view he was the best pick of the bunch that ran for leadership. I know him and he is very connected with the party and he is more worried about the NDP than the Liberals (either that or the 'anybody but Ford' vote gets split and they get in anyway).

My wife tends to vote locally (and the candidate is a fine person) but I tend to vote provincially; i.e. every riding won is a step to power. It is looking like the voting from our household will be net zero. Either that or I will go in and draw a frowny face on my ballot. I declined my ballot a few years ago and that just caused too much confusion to the nice ladies at the polling station.
 
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Ok, so maybe my idea to just light my ballot would be more to their liking. It's a fairly blunt statement, no explanation required.
 
BRAUN: Victoria begs for her life

Stories like this reinforce that the Wynne drug plan was made for political reasons, and not medical ones. I would much rather a drug plan that ensures access to expensive drugs, than one that reimburses a few dollars for the most basic types of drugs. Something could have been developed to accommodate those in the low income bracket, but that likely would not have gotten the targeted votes they were after.
The story also raises the question of what experimental drugs OHIP should cover. It does appear that Ontario is lagging behind due to financial reasons and not medical.

 
BurlOak said:
BRAUN: Victoria begs for her life

Stories like this reinforce that the Wynne drug plan was made for political reasons, and not medical ones. I would much rather a drug plan that ensures access to expensive drugs, than one that reimburses a few dollars for the most basic types of drugs. Something could have been developed to accommodate those in the low income bracket, but that likely would not have gotten the targeted votes they were after.
The story also raises the question of what experimental drugs OHIP should cover. It does appear that Ontario is lagging behind due to financial reasons and not medical.
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Stories about funding experimental drugs are always far more complicated than "look at the greedy politicians".

Regarding orkami, the experimental drug they want funded, "(The Canadian Drug Expert Committee) CDEC noted that the absence of established thresholds for clinically significant changes in the clinical parameters that are routinely measured in clinical practice."
 
BurlOak said:
BRAUN: Victoria begs for her life

Stories like this reinforce that the Wynne drug plan was made for political reasons, and not medical ones. I would much rather a drug plan that ensures access to expensive drugs, than one that reimburses a few dollars for the most basic types of drugs. Something could have been developed to accommodate those in the low income bracket, but that likely would not have gotten the targeted votes they were after.
The story also raises the question of what experimental drugs OHIP should cover. It does appear that Ontario is lagging behind due to financial reasons and not medical.
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The moral of the story is be careful when believing any promises from the Liberals. When the programs do get implemented they end up having restrictions that they didn't advertise up front. Its all about the optics with them.

For my 1-year old son I've already had 2 different medications not covered. Its not the end of the world as my work plan will make up for it. But it just shows that its never as advertised.

And I've mentioned before that they have implemented free IVF. Its 1 free cycle. But the waiting lists are long, which almost defeats the purpose. But they get to say they have the program, which is the most important part for them.
 
narduch said:
The moral of the story is be careful when believing any promises from the Liberals. When the programs do get implemented they end up having restrictions that they didn't advertise up front. Its all about the optics with them.

For my 1-year old son I've already had 2 different medications not covered. Its not the end of the world as my work plan will make up for it. But it just shows that its never as advertised.

And I've mentioned before that they have implemented free IVF. Its 1 free cycle. But the waiting lists are long, which almost defeats the purpose. But they get to say they have the program, which is the most important part for them.
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Of course they have restrictions - Trillium Drug Program and Ontario Drug Benefit both have formularies for very good reasons (demonstrated effectiveness vs. cost) as well. If you want an open-ended program, be ready to swallow the full cost of drugs that are nothing more than stratospheric in price (some at greater than 100K per year per person) on the taxpayers dime.

And a drug plan that prioritizes the rare and expensive over relatively cheap and common is simply bad public policy, period. I don't have to lecture anyone on the reasons why, I'd think/hope.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
Of course they have restrictions - Trillium Drug Program and Ontario Drug Benefit both have formularies for very good reasons (demonstrated effectiveness vs. cost) as well. If you want an open-ended program, be ready to swallow the full cost of drugs that are nothing more than stratospheric in price (some at greater than 100K per year per person) on the taxpayers dime.

And a drug plan that priorities the rare and expensive over relatively cheap and common is simply bad public policy, period. I don't have to lecture anyone on the reasons why, I'd think/hope.

AoD
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I've had medications that were $30-40 not covered. Its a small inconvenience but not the end of the world.

My main point is that what the Liberals make promises that seem all encompassing but aren't in reality. This is just one example.
 
narduch said:
I've had medications that were $30-40 not covered. Its a small inconvenience but not the end of the world.

My main point is that what the Liberals make promises that seem all encompassing but aren't in reality. This is just one example.
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I think they were pretty clear that the drug program is not for all drugs right from the get go - just like none of the previous provincial drug programs are free for all either. Wishful thinking isn't reality.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I think they were pretty clear that the drug program is not for all drugs right from the get go - just like none of the previous provincial drug programs are free for all either. Wishful thinking isn't reality.

AoD
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The program of OHIP+ has the exact same formulary as the Seniors Drug Benefit. It covers 4,400 drugs give or take a few.

A generous private plan might cover in the range of 10,000-12,000.

But many of the additional drugs are duplicative in terms of what they treat and more expensive that those that are covered.

The number of high priced drugs that aren't covered, for which there is a convincing medical case is relatively small. Which does not take away from the misery if you're one of
patients/families who need or think you need a non-covered drug. Nonetheless, the covered program is fairly comprehensive.

For comparison, the super-core Universal Pharmacare proposed by the NDP which would cover everyone (without rolling back existing coverages for those that have them) covers only 125 drugs.

That list, though, includes the most common antibiotics, blood pressure drugs, birth control, mental health medications and so on. Those 125 drugs actually account for the majority of necessary prescriptions to my understanding. Get past those and ever fewer people are using ever rarer medications.
 
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