Government doubles cancer fund to P1 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The government plans to double the Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF) to P1 billion next year in a bid to help more patients.

In the record-high P5.768-trillion 2024 National Expenditure Program, P1 billion has been allocated for the CAF to boost the health and welfare of Filipinos suffering from cancer, which remains among the leading causes of deaths in the country.

This is double from this year’s allocation of P500 million and re-presents a portion of the P875.6 billion budget to fund medical care and assistance to disadvantaged Filipinos.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the higher CAF for 2024 is due to the increasing number of enrolled cancer patients nationwide.

The provision for the CAF shall fund outpatient and inpatient cancer control services, including but not limited to therapeutic procedures, and other cancer medicines needed for the treatment and management of cancer and its care-related components.

It will serve 6,666 patients enrolled in 31 cancer access sites to augment financial support for cancer diagnostics and laboratories not covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., at an average cost of P150,000 per patient.

These include the needed diagnostics and laboratories for the eight priority cancer types namely breast, childhood, gyne-cologic, liver, adult blood, head and neck, and prostate, renal and urinary.