Ontario fund needed to pay for out-of-country surgery?
The online crowdfunding campaign to raise money needed to cover the cost of life-saving cancer surgery for Trent Hills Mayor Hec Macmillan continues to grow and as of Friday night had raised $28,133 toward the $100,000 goal set by GoFundMe campaign organizer Deanna Lemoire-Renouf .
For a fighting chance, he needs $275,000 more in donations.
OHIP won’t pay for out-of-country NanoKnife surgery in Kentucky. The Ministry of Health does not seem to have any answers for Macmillan who suffers from pancreatic cancer.
Not everybody has thrown in the towel.
Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod is looking for solutions, including the idea of creating a special fund for instances like this.
“I have thought about that a lot for a long time,” MacLeod said. “It seems it’s happening far more regularly than we realize. We need to think of ideas to deal with it.”
It is close to her heart since she has had constituents suffer this fate, as well -- including one young lady who needed surgery that was not covered by OHIP. So what to do? “Maybe a private member’s bill?” she suggested.
She has been reaching out to MPPs of all political stripes for ideas.
“We will start the conversation and get all the players involved -Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke, and all the other support organizations, as well as the private sector.”
MacLeod was one of the key people behind Rowan’s Law -- named after 17-year-old Rowan Stringer. She died after suffering a second concussion in a week during a high school rugby game.
The new concussion protocols -- in place thanks to MacLeod and people like Eric Lindros -- will not help Rowan. But it will save others.
In this case, we want to save Hector and whoever is next.
Perhaps it makes sense to create a fund for people in a health crisis. It could even be a program that matches fundraising efforts by supporters of those in need.
For example, if someone raises $100,000, that person would be eligible for the same amount from the fund.