"This law gives hope to cancer patients, survivors, those living with cancer, and their carers. It shows that the government knows their plight and is setting up ways to help them."
"This law gives hope to cancer patients, survivors, those living with cancer, and their carers. It shows that the government knows their plight and is setting up ways to help them."President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed into law last Valentine’s Day a measure institutionalizing a national cancer control program that provides accessible and affordable cancer treatment to Filipinos.
Because cancer “is one of the leading causes of death in the Philippines,” Republic Act No. 11215 integrates and strengthens the government’s cancer treatment programs, policies, and systems.
Here’s the important part: “It shall likewise make cancer treatment and care more equitable and affordable for all, especially for the underprivileged, poor, and marginalized Filipinos.”
How is the law going to do all that?
For starters, it establishes the National Integrated Cancer Control Program that shall serve as the “framework for all cancer-related activities of the government.”
It shall be run by a National Integrated Cancer Control Council, with the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau of the Department of Health acting as the Council’s secretariat. To enable the Bureau to undertake its new tasks, the number of personnel attached to its Cancer Program arm shall be increased.
The government’s cancer care facilities shall be expanded, and a Philippine Cancer Center established under the control and supervision of the DOH. Other centers shall be opened in high-risk and high-population areas.
A cancer awareness campaign shall be launched, and February has been designated ‘National Cancer Awareness Month’ throughout the Philippines.
In addition, a Cancer Assistance Fund shall be “established to support the cancer medicine and treatment assistance program.” PhilHealth is also ordered to expand its benefit packages for cancer.
Another interesting provision is the establishment of a Cancer Control Policy in workplaces. “It shall form part of employee benefits in the formal sector covering the entire cancer continuum, from prevention, including genetic counseling and testing, to screening, diagnosis, and palliative care, treatment, rehabilitation, survivorship, or hospice care.”
Moreover, the “cancer-related absences from work of member employees as well as voluntary members shall be covered by the sickness benefits of the SSS and disability benefits of the GSIS.”
Another important provision considers cancer patients, those living with cancer, and cancer survivors as persons with disabilities with the same rights and privileges such as discounts on medicines, in establishments, and on food.
In late 2017, the Cancer Coalition of the Philippines said that 11 new cancer cases are reported every day. One out of every ten deaths is caused by cancer.
According to the DOH, “Among Filipino men, the six most common sites of cancer diagnosed in 2010…were lung, liver, colon/rectum, prostate, stomach, and leukemia. Among Filipino women, the six most common sites diagnosed were breast, cervix, lung, colon/rectum, ovary, and liver.”
Regular screening is vital because early detection catches the disease when it is most treatable and there is a higher chance of surviving it.
Cancer treatments involve surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or other procedures in combination depending on the type and stage of cancer.
Such treatment is expensive, out of the reach of the poor and many middle-class households. The CCPh says that 56 percent of households with cancer patients suffer financial distress, which often leads to the patients discontinuing their treatment.
Many of us have relatives, friends, or family who have cancer, survived it, or passed away because of it, and we know what it’s like, particularly with regard to the cost of treatment.
And it’s not just the chemo or surgery per se—it’s also the related expenses, such as the medicines (oral chemo drugs, vitamins, laxatives, maintenance medicines, other drugs), tests (blood tests every three weeks or so, CT scans, x-rays, and so on), good food, travel to and from hospital, and the occasional confinement.
I battled colon cancer last year and I was able to afford the treatment only because generous donors—former employers—funded my chemotherapy. I am alive today because people were kind. But I was lucky and it’s not something I can count on in the future. If this law had been passed sooner, I would have availed myself of its benefits.
This law gives hope to cancer patients, survivors, those living with cancer, and their carers. It shows that the government knows their plight and is setting up ways to help them.
There is much work to be done regarding the implementation of the National Integrated Cancer Control Act. Just reading the law makes me dizzy with the sheer scale of what they need to get done. But this is all necessary and timely, and very much welcome.
During my surgery and chemo, my colorectal surgeon told me to “Think positive!” and “Walk a lot.” It helped.
FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO
