CFN – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is being hailed as a villain by many Seniors and patients with type 2 diabetes after it was discovered that strips used to test patients blood will be limited and in some cases not covered by Provincial health plans any longer in a bid to save the Province $25M per year.
The penny wise pound foolish move would impact over 150,000 patients. The strips cost approximately .75 cents per, but some patients test multiple times per day and costs add up, especially for seniors or those on fixed incomes.
As of August, instead of testing as prescribed by their doctors patients will be limited to 200-400 strips annually with those on Insulin granted more.
CFN received comment from Progressive Conservative Health Critic Christine Elliot;
I’m disappointed to hear yet another short sighted announcement from the Liberal government to cut millions in funding for diabetes management tools. This decision doesn’t take into account people’s desire to take control of their own health care and ultimately, the cut may end up costing the province more through increased complications and hospitalizations that could have otherwise been prevented.
What do you think Ontario viewers of CFN? Is this going to really save the Province money in the long run? You can post your comments below.
Kathleen Wynne does not know very much about Diabetes to rush in making cuts to the strips, but that is exactly the same as Dalt McGuilty would have done if he was still premier of Ontario, to get a pay raise for himse;f. That is STANDARD LIBERAL POLICY, so do not expect any changes until we have voted this senseless bunch of IDIOTS out of office.
i believe insulin dependent diabetics will get 3,000 test strips covered per year and this means they can test, on average, 8 times a day.
non-insulin users on oral medication/diet/exercise will be covered for testing approximately once every other day. some people with type 2 (that I know) rarely/never test their glucose and rely on the HbA1C blood test they get every 3 months, which shows if their at target.
apparently, the Can. Diabetes Assoc. worked with the gov’t to arrive at this model for coverage, so i would expect there’s some validity.
but rather than hear from the politicians on this issue, i’d prefer to hear from the Canadian Medical Assoc.
it’s very possible that the biggest losers in this scenario will be the test-strip manufacturers. they don’t make their money of the glucometers and give them away free-of-charge. these companies make their money on the test strips, and it’s a very competitive/lucrative business.
maybe we should see some value that tax dollars aren’t making the companies richer.
Along with some sort of reduced annual check up if between 18 and 65 now, this cut is not the best place to start. We must know salary and administration should be targeted.
Shame on this leader. These testing strips are not luxuries, they are vital to the health and very life of most people with diabetes. I will be watching to see where this stolen monies is next applied. Perhaps for greater health care due to the needs of those who can no longer test their blood as often as they need it?
Seriously do you realize just what you have done…my God you have put so many lives in danger….these strips are medically necessary way of life for those of us that are Diabetics does not matter if we are Type 1 or Type 2….seen as how you have put this idiot plan in place best be throwing extra dollars at us for the parking expense and the lost wages that are going to come from the inability to adequately monitor blood sugars as required….drain on the health care system….good to know you gave a damn about those of us who have this disease….how about cutting 3 square meals a day for inmates or methadone for drug addicts or your chartered flights for vacations oh hell cut your pension what do you do for us diabetics beside put our lives in DANGER…..HEY THANKS ONTARIO PREMIER…PFFT YOU ARE NO BETTER THEN THAT DAMN MCGUINTY….ONE MORE MORON IN THE HOUSE!!
Kenneth isn’t it usually the Conservatives that slash healthcare in Ontario? IE Mike Harris regime?
Oh yes “Harass” aka Mike Harris and McGuinty and Wynn are no different – they are all liars, thieves and crooks just like the ones on Parliament Hill. I am no longer going to vote at all and I didn’t vote this time at all. I will not waste my precious time on any of them – they all have to be eliminated completely. That goes for the municipal level as well.
Diabetes is a very dangerous disease and so much so that most people do not know about it whether type 1 or 2. This disease can be deadly and is in a lot of cases.
I will never forget when my daughter had viral pneumonia and was very sick and we had to wait ten hours here in Ottawa to see a doctor at the emergency and there is no triage but only a first come first serve basis unless you are brought in by ambulance and even at that the health care is for the pits. When we complained the head nurse said to send a letter to McGuinty – what a looser and now another looser. Well when the society is no good at all then what do you expect from your leaders.
Jules if you don’t vote that’s what you get.
Don,t forget Mr Rae and the OLD NDP gang who decimated the staffing in hospitals and gave many RAE DAYS and many front line hospital workers RAE YEARS. But hey some one has to pay for the billions spent on health improvements to our medical records and the famous Orange projects that have resulted medical care and better ambulance response times locally(HEHEHEHEHEHE) shinning examples as to where this money will be well spent
I.E. (thousand of dollars to be spent locally on liberal job creation called consultants looking at ambulances times ) come on taxpayer why whine better to just bend over and take from behind even a change of government will just bring more of the same i can’t make any suggestions as the bests way to go as the years of BS and let downs have turned my political brain to mush the only thing its failed to do is turn me off voting as there always a 649 possibility about to happen both federally and provincially. Dam hurry up and legalize pot I might just have to try some to finally have my magical carpet ride here on earth!
Admin I voted before in the federal election (the one where I voted for Jack Layton) and he died. I am not a socialist but I voted for him because to get rid of Harpo and the other liberal guy and Harpo stole the election. I said then that I was finished with all of this craziness. Kathleen Wynn is no good at all and I knew all of this ahead of time – she is McGuinty the second. I have no hope in any of them at all. Look at the municipal gang in Cornwall and see that man Todd Lalonde what he did and ask yourself Admin would you vote for such a person who is trying to imitate Bare Ass and company. I sure wouldn’t. Look at the senators on Parliament Hill at what they are doing – I know one of them and they are all crooks and liars – how can anyone vote for such people it beats me. The trouble is that people don’t know these people or they sure wouldn’t put any of them into power at all.
My daughter has hypothyroid and every three to six months she goes for blood testing and even for diabetes to see if she has any affliction since it is in both sides of our families. Thyroid disease is bad enough but diabetes can be very lethal if it isn’t caught in time and treated. People who are diabetic both type 1 and 2 have to be tested and treated and sometimes the meds have to be changed. The same thing in thyroid disease the dosage has to be changed sometimes.
We have a very big problem with the poliltical system here in Canada as well as the US where only two kinds get in the liberal fiberals or the con jobs. The NDP is just a bag of wind and we have learned a heavy lesson from Bob Rae who also became a turncoat to the liberal-fiberal side. Not one of them can be trusted at any level. I remember one man with whom we used to walk with in Cornwall’s park would say “yes but you have to step into one of these three little pieces of doo doo but you just want to know which one” they all stink.
I guarantee you Admin and folks that if a politician walked into your doctors office or your emergency centre at the hospital or those clinics those dirt bag politicians would go ahead of you and it happened to us with a politician who represented SD&G. This politician went in for a little bit of nothing at all and he went ahead of everyone. The same thing with Harpo at the emergency at a hospital here in Ottawa. We can keep on naming plenty of them and they get the best treatment whereas the rest of us are left hanging. Voting will not make any improvements Admin and folks and the only thing is to throw all the bums out and keep them all out – not more than one term and they are out for good.
Every person with diabetes is an individual with an individual set of health conditions and diseases which will impact his blood glucose level. Because he or she is an individual the decion about how many test strips he ior she needs is best left up to the patient and his or her healthcare provider/prescriber not the government. Test strips are an expensive item in the Ontario and Trillium Drug Plans’ arsenal against the complications of diabetes, but the complications themselves will require even more expensive treatments and procedures than the strips that a well-managed diabetic requires. Some have noted that only people who are clients of Trillium and the Ontario Drug Plan are affected. Patients who are receiving benefits from extended health providers are not affected. That means that two tier is here, folks. Your civil servant, his family members and other Ontarians with benefits gets as many sticks as they need, but the pensioner with limited means and the person on social assistance only gets the number of sticks that some committee decided he was entitled, too. How nonsensical is this policy.
Insulin is covered, so when I can’t test my blood as often I will end up sicker and have to take insulin instead of the pills I’m on now, so they will end up spending more money to supply insulin and the test strips, and this makes sense to them. The insulin is covered but the needles to inject it aren’t for diabetics, but needles are covered for drug addicts so they can use clean needles this is our health ministers great plan.
I believe some of you may have missed the part in he article that says ……
“As of August, instead of testing as prescribed by their doctors patients will be limited to 200-400 strips annually with those on Insulin granted more.”
My diabetes center will help out if I do not get enough to test once a day I am type2… Those needing needles your Diabetes center again will help you with those…
This women really needs to retire. And then get diabetes so she can see how much this costs, Then we will see how the story changes theses politicians all come from money so its easy for them to make cuts to middle class people just barely making it bye. Tell her to take a pay cut to half and then pay for her medical expenses then see what position she would be in.
Frank….I can see your points. However wishing someone to get diabetes is NOT the way to go about getting your point across.
This should fire an outrage! It seems that Wynne’s Government still has plenty of cash to throw around for Junkies with Free Needles and Injection Sites…so they can safely continue on in their own self-destruction. Buying into failed Energy Gimmicks and so forth…yet she can remove something that is necessary for monitoring and diagnosing Diabetic Health?
Interesting also…is that this is going to severely affect a few of the Wynne Liberals favourite Pet Groups…Aboriginal Native and Minorities! Both of which suffer from Diabetes more than any other demographic! Good Shot Kathleen Wynne…you’re working really hard to lose the next election!
Outrage yes. But the outrage should have come three years ago when this was news.
Hugger not all news is carried for fear of not getting huge provincial ads and notices. The Province of Ontario boycotts CFN because we post stuff like this.
Our family doctor retired because of Winnie the Poo hounding him and others and we learned from other doctors that they will do the tests but will not contact you if it isn’t necessary. Winnie the Poo is making drastic cuts that resemble walk in clinics and worse. My daughter was assigned to a Greek lady who is a doctor and not nice at all – very abrupt and young. The province is cutting.
Ontario is in very deep doo doo financially and this is no joke. Heath is the most important and they cut on the most important area. Why not cut on teachers who cannot teach and one of the lowest educations in the world that makes Africa look way advanced. Teachers who take off and cannot teach and make $100K and more a year for what. We need good doctors and good care.
Admin…I agree with the points you brought up. My point, I guess, is trying to change government policy 3 years after implementation is a waste of time and energy.
Jules…that policy of not informing patients of negative results was implemented years ago. It just took some doctors longer to fully implement it. If a patient wants their test results they can always call their doctor. That option was never taken away from patients. As for your daughter not liking her doctor at least she has one. Almost 9% of Ontatians don’t have a doctor. That’s almost 1 in 10
What ifs to try and solve Ontario’s financial problems get us nowhere.
Hugger the doctor that we used to have constantly made appointments for my daughter to see him for every little thing. My daughter would get all kinds of tests done like as if she was his lab experiment and had to go to see him for results since he didn’t give anything over the phone. The doctor was one of these old fashioned doctors and very precise unlike the young doctors of today.
We need real leaders and not those who do nothing but take selfies and travel the world at our expense, etc. Ontario is in big trouble financially and I don’t say that lightly. These “so called leaders” are not leaders but are there to collect pay cheque. I read yesterday that a chef working in the federal government quit because he couldn’t manage without a pay cheque.
Hugger I told my daughter the same thing that you did that the doctor is there to help her and not to be liked. Yes many people are without a doctor and we cannot compare the old time doctors to today’s. At least there is someone there for her since she has thyroid disease. Her blood has to be tested every three months sometimes six months and her meds have to be renewed.
Monday morning it is off to the lab for my daughter and another lady is going to do the same. There are a few women who work with my daughter with health issues and they were talking about the doctor shortage. For a country like Canada this is a catastrophe.
Well Jules….considering how governments in Canada treat doctors is there any surprise that there is a doctor shortage?
Hugger you are absolutely right in what you said about the governments here in Canada how they treat doctors. I was talking about that to a doctor here in Ottawa and she said the same thing that you said. Doctors don’t get big raises and work long hours and people lives are in their hands. Today doctors are very unhappy in their profession. The worst people are the politicians.
I’ve had many talks with my GP about doctors, OHIP, government, etc. He is one of the old style doctors. He doesn’t charge for notes, Rx, refills, etc. He’s in Ottawa. I’d rather keep him instead of training a new doctor.
Hugger you are absolutely right. We were talking about this just this morning and if it were not for my daughter’s doctor who just retired we would not have known what was wrong with her. In Cornhole the doctor at the walk in clinic knew absolutely nothing and mis diagnosed her. Doctors are retiring because of what the government is putting them through and not many can afford their own practic
I see Kathleen Putin is at it again. Obviously no one in her family is affected by diabetes.
Rick Goulet….This is from three years ago, that’s when the cut was made.
She need to GO!!! Taking strips away ridiculous!!!. Hiking hydro and water . What doe she expect people to do? How about lowering the wages for the people in government? Think how many millions that would save??After all the only the only thing they know how do is raise prices ? Get rid of the LIBERAL GOVERNMENT!!!!
My daughter was at the lab this morning having her blood work done for the new doctor. Having thyroid disease is bad enough and one of her cousins (my husband’s youngest niece) in Sydney Australia has that disease including her mother. There is blood relationship in the family. That disease is in my husband’s family along with hypertension.
This Premier and the Liberal Party are doing more damage to Ontario and it’s residents than the NDP did when it was in Power. The self-serving idiots are ruining this province and it is (has become) the poorest in the country. Senior Citizens will not be able to control their type 2 diabetes properly and this will lead to increased hospitalizations and even deaths (perhaps that is what they are tr
This is awful my brother is type 2 and we used to live in Ontario and she does this there is more important stuff to be worrying about then trying to rip off people because of their health shame on u wynn
Is she serious??? Cutting funding for these strips to 200-400 annually? I use 4 a day which equals 1460 annually so what’s that telling you? Oh my goodness this is horrendous. I have 2 nephews who have Type 1 and test daily, I have Type 2 and test 4 times daily. I cannot afford to pay these completely on my own. Absolutely lacking care and compassion.
I have a 10 yr old grandson who is type 1 and his mom is a single parent with 2 other siblings she,s bearly making ends meet now if she has to buy strips then the prices need to drop drastically he has to be tested at least 6 times a day sometimes more if he,s running high what is wrong with these clowns we have running our country time for them to go bye bye
I hope this woman gets diabetes herself and has to pay out of pocket to check her blood sugars. She probably will use the extra money to give herself a raise or pay for a nanny or housekeepers for the prime minister’s wife. What an Ahole she is, loots worse every day.
People that can not afford the strips just wont get them and will find themselves get even sicker.
She is not a smart woman at all,
She should go back and just be a housewife.
A stay at home one.
Has anyone bothered to check the date of this article? Funding for diabetes test strips were discontinued over three years ago. Wakey-wakey!!
I am a type 2 diabetic…and as a poster said she knows of people who barely test. Then they are not managing their diabeties…and in not doing so with daily testing, they run the very real and high risk of the illnesses and other side effects that diabeties does to their bodies. The treatment of these complications will cost the tax payer and the system way more then the test strips did.
I have diabetes and need test strips, many of our native peoples need test strips, this is an outrage, I will actively work to get this Premier out of office, enough is enough, the final straw. I also live on a pension paid taxes for all my working life. This is a continuation of her war on working people,
My great grand child died in a hospital 6 years ago ,delivered in a toilet , they waited over 23 hours to see a doctor ,12 hours at St Catharines General , they then went to Hotel Dieu in St Catharines still no doctor, no Doctors the Dalton Gang destroyed our health system. get rid of the LLIHNS
George Jardine you are absolutely right. We have to get rid of the Liberal/Fiberals anywhere from the feds down to the province as well as any liberals in municipality – they are the ones destroying everything. There are no doctors and family physicians make only $385K a year that is peanuts. No wonder they are leaving to the US and elsewhere. We have no doctors even in Ottawa.
I have been a type 1 Diabetic for over half my life 30yrs to be exact.
I’ve never liked Kathleen Wynn. Part of the Government who walked away from coal plant construction which cost us 2 billion. Now selling off Hydro. She couldnt manage her way out of a wet paper bag.Now hitting the seniors who should not pay tax at all after 65 but do now will have their strips taken away.