Thank you for your message on this incredibly important topic. I am utterly confounded at the way EI and disability benefits ignore long term illness.
We have seriously failed Canadian survivors.
If elected, I will push for legislation that will:
- Prioritize healthcare research and innovation
- Support medical staff
- Install holistic initiatives and commit to patient- rather than disease-centred care
- Create a federal emergency response plan that does not include stopping necessary surgeries and procedures
- Remove restrictions on web-based mental health support and fund web based mental health programs
- Create a seamless process that assists Canadians with long term illnesses in switching from EI to longer term disability benefits such as CPP disability and provincial disability benefits
- Implement universal pharmacare
- Invest in healthcare technologies that increase access to treatment, such as new breast cancer screening technologies that can detect even the smallest lumps without pain or exposure to radiation
- Support least invasive, most supportive technologies, such as pill endoscopy, that increase access to treatment and decrease fear-based avoidance
Thank you again for your insightful message. As a cancer survivor myself, and someone who has lost a number of family members to the disease, I truly understand the challenges we face.