With cancer diagnoses rising steadily nationwide, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said that it spent nearly NT$80 billion (US$2.56 billion) on cancer treatment last year, with the majority going to therapies for colorectal cancer.
The agency’s latest statistics showed that last year alone it allocated NT$78.2 billion to cancer treatment, accounting for about 13.3 percent of its total NT$590 billion in expenses for the year.
Colorectal cancer treatment topped the spending list with NT$10.9 billion, followed by lung cancers with NT$10.8 billion, breast cancers with NT$10.3 billion, liver cancers with NT$8.4 billion and oral cancers with NT$6.6 billion, the statistics showed.
Rounding out the top 10 most expensive cancers were leukemia with NT$4 billion, non-Hodgkin lymphomas at NT$3.9 billion, prostate cancers with NT$3.1 billion, stomach cancers with NT$2.5 billion and esophageal cancers, NT$2.3 billion.
“The treatment expenses included the costs of surgeries, examinations, anesthesia, hospital stays and medicines, as well as diagnostic fees, with prescription drug expenses for the 614,415 Taiwanese diagnosed with cancer last year amounting to NT$29.4 billion constituting the largest portion at nearly 30 percent,” agency researcher Chen Shang-pin (陳尚斌) said.
Chen said that the increase in spending on cancer drugs was the most prominent budget increase in the past three years, at 6.9 percent, followed by 5.8 percent growth in the total expenses for cancer treatments and 4.8 percent growth in the number of cancer patients.
Liver cancer drug costs saw the largest increase — 20.4 percent, while those for non-Hodgkin lymphomas and leukemia climbed by 13.7 percent and 11.9 percent respectively, Chen said.
“The significant growth in the cost of medicines could have been because the inclusion of new anticancer drugs into the National Health Insurance program over the past two years,” Chen said.
The NHIA would continue to widen insurance coverage to include more effective and advanced medicines to increase patients’ chances of recovery and survival, while reducing the financial burden of medical treatment for individuals.
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