The National Health Insurance (NHI) cannot provide the best care for people with lung cancer despite government goals to lower cancer mortality rates, the Taiwan Young Patient Association said on Nov. 26, criticizing the attention given to novel treatments while standard methods rack up large bills.
Association vice president Liu Huan-jui (劉桓睿) said that 66 percent of people with late-stage lung cancer undergoing treatment elect to take targeted therapy, while 32 percent elect to undergo chemotherapy, and others opt for surgical removal, radiation therapy or immunotherapy.
However, more than 60 percent said they changed their treatment methods, with 52.8 percent saying they did so because there were more effective methods and another 40 percent saying worsening conditions forced them to alter medications, Liu said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The remaining respondents said the side effects of their original treatments were too much to handle.
Asked whether they knew of the Nonclinical Evaluation for Anticancer Pharmaceuticals, only 8.3 percent said they were aware, highlighting that 90 percent of patients needed clarification, and 47.8 percent said they had never heard of it, the survey showed.
The survey showed that 88.8 percent of respondents said they wished doctors would clearly state which treatments were not covered by the NHI program and help patients to understand all options.
More than one-half of cancer patients have had to change therapies mid-treatment, with 40 percent paying out-of-pocket, the report said.
More than 76 percent of respondents said they could handle additional monthly medical bills up to NT$50,000, but the survey showed that up to 55 percent pay more than NT$50,000 monthly.
Patients’ financial sources to foot their medical bills came from insurance, savings or salary, or they had to rely on financial aid from family, the survey showed.
The survey responses demonstrated that the percentage of cancer treatments that were paid out of pocket was a significant stress factor, the report said.
More than 93 percent of respondents said they were worried that their expenses would reduce family spending, such as school fees, or affect their ability to pay for car and home loans.
Hiked NHI premiums in recent years have not seen a similar growth in the number of cancer treatment medications being covered, Liu said, adding that cancer patients did not need unproven innovative medicine, but standard treatment medications that are internationally recognized.
The survey was conducted online between Oct. 11 and Nov. 3, garnering 317 valid responses.
Seventy percent of respondents were under the age of 50, while 71.9 percent were third and fourth-stage cancer patients. 77.9 percent suffered from lung adenocarcinoma, with 10 percent each suffering from squamous cell carcinoma and small-cell carcinoma, and the remaining respondents suffering from large cell carcinoma.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS