TO FUND an indigent cancer patient’s treatment, Davao City First Congressional District Representative Paolo Z. Duterte and two other lawmakers proposed to allocate P10 billion assistance for patients.
In their explanatory note, Duterte, Rep. Eric Yap of Benguet, and Rep. Edvic Yap of Party List - ACT-CIS said that although there was already a law created in 2019 for cancer control initiatives of the government, Republic Act No. 11215, also known as National Integrated Cancer Control Act, he said that legislation is still not enough.
“Despite such enactment, at present, a lot has still been burdened by the financial demand of this cancer treatment, especially the indigent and underprivileged patients,” they said.
“Under the said legislation, a cancer assistance fund is allocated to provide financial help to cancer patients for his / her screening, diagnosis, specialized treatment and/or rehabilitation, palliative and supportive care to survivorship, and cancer medicines,” the explanatory note reads.
Due to its insufficiency, Duterte and two other lawmakers said that the cancer assistance fund should be strengthened which can only be availed by indigent and underprivileged cancer patients.
The bill said that the cancer patient beneficiaries will be identified by Philhealth in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). KSD