Province won't accept online petition signatures
Published Wednesday May 20th, 2009
Frank Taylor says he can't afford to give up his fight to have New Brunswick cover costly colorectal cancer drug Avastin.
The retired school administrator was forced to borrow about $35,000 after he was diagnosed with colon cancer several months ago because the drug isn't covered by the provincial medical plan.
New Brunswick is one of three provinces that doesn't cover Avastin - Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are the others.
And for the second time in a week, Taylor's efforts to present a petition with almost 7,500 signatures to the provincial legislature have failed.
Last week, the 71-year-old resident asked Quispamsis Liberal MLA Mary Schryer to submit the petition on his behalf, but soon discovered that it couldn't be recognized because more than 4,000 of the names were collected online.
Taylor and his wife Louise joined a number of colorectal cancer patients as guests of Tory Health critic Margaret-Ann Blaney at the legislature for Tuesday's afternoon session as she tried to submit the names.
The Speaker of the house told Blaney and her guests that petitions containing electronic signatures aren't recognized by the legislature.
Taylor said it's disappointing the petition won't make its way into the public session.
"We have more than 7,000 people who are supporting this, and I want to know why they aren't being listened to," he said.
"I know they want them to all be handwritten (signatures), but a person could sign someone else's name the same as they could try to fake an online signature. The point is, I know the support is there."
Health Minister Mike Murphy said he accepts the petition personally, even though it can't be entered into the public record.
Murphy later told reporters that the legislature should review the petition policy.
"I think that (Rothesay MLA) Margaret-Ann Blaney is right," he said.
"With the Internet and all of the facets of it, the time has come. So we'll agree to discuss this at the procedures committee."
Murphy said he hopes to find support at the federal level for a comprehensive catastrophic drug program that would stretch across the country.
He said without a national program, New Brunswick would be forced to try to pick and choose which drugs would be covered.
"What we need is some commitment by the federal government so that we can do this all at once, or as close to all at once as possible," he said.
"We don't want to have a situation where one catastrophic drug is covered for one horrendous disease, but not covered for the other horrendous disease. It's a $40-(million) to $60-million program."
But he said he isn't hearing much from Ottawa.
Taylor said he hopes that something can be done soon. He's spending nearly $1,200 per week on the medication.
He said he's going to remain positive that his efforts are making a difference.
"We definitely need this. It's not just me. There are (likely 400 New Brunswickers) out there walking around trying to find a way to pay for (this medication). And I want to keep working at it until it's covered," he said.
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in my view, it would be nice to have a prescription drug plan, but NB needs Ottawa to come to the table with their capacity to raise funds and help NB fund this program so we can all benefit from cheaper drug cost.
I agree with the Health Minister, how can we decide to fund this one for Colon cancer but not one for bladder, breast or any other form of cancer....
Either we fund them all or we decide which ones we can afford to fund...... Another reason why EVERYONE should pay for Health Insurance no matter what the cost........
I think thee Liberals think their is some silent majority out there that will support them... I think they are wrong. Perhaps if the office is inundated with phone calls from unhappy voters they might start to get the message.