The second reading of Bill 55 was at 10:00 am, Thursday, April 22, 2004. There was tremendous support for Bill 55 from all sides of the House! Many MPP's spoke in favour of it and acknowledged that more use of insulin pump therapy would save the health care system significant funds in the long term! There is more work yet to do for Ontario residents in favour of this Bill... ...please help keep it high profile! Ask your MPP each month about it's status! Speak to your media about it!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATI0N TO SEPT 2005 WHEN ODAP TOOK ON THE BATTLE!
Paul Beckwith, co-founder of our group, has finished preparing new petitions asking for OHIP coverage of diabetes supplies including pumps. Paul related to us that he had recently been approached by MPP Joe Tascona to re-circulate his petition as Mr. Tascona feels such a request has the best chance ever of being accepted by the current Government. Now is the time for all of us to act!
In past, Paul secured and submitted over 10,000 signatures to the House. "We don't need nearly that many this time around..." but to collect any significant amount at all, it will take all of us pumpers filling out at least one 18 line petition.
Insulin Pumpers Canada affiliates; Hamilton Insulin Pumpers and Quinte Insulin Pumpers; have already been in contact with Paul to obtain a supply of these petitions. Hamilton IP is having their local MPP attend their May meeting to address this issue and provide aid in this effort. We have extra copies of this petition available for you to pick up at our meetings or by contacting Paul: p.c.beckwith@sympatico.ca or by going to the link below and downloading it for printing.
Anyone who lives in Ontario can participate!
It was reported by Paul that MPP Garfield Dunlop also supports this petition and the coverage by OHIP of pumps and DM supplies and it is suspected that several more MPP's in Quinte's area as well as in southern Ontario are willing to back this effort!
Download & Print the Petition (pdf) If this link does not work, right click (or control-left click) and select dowload link to disk or make sure you have Acrobat Reader and that it's set as your pdf helper in your browser settings.
Sample Letter (WORD) or (TEXT) to have private employer coverage of pump supplies increased! Use it as a template for your own!
From the author: "As you recall I have been going through the process of having the pump supplies covered by my employer. I didn't get full coverage but the issue did move forward several steps. Some relief is better than no relief"!
"So, I thought I would send the letters to you and ask you to post them on the web site so that others can use them as a resource". Please contact the author: Salimah Kassim-Lakha with comments or questions.