‘P1.25B allotted for cancer aid fund’
MAKATI City 2nd District Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said on Sunday that Congress had allocated P1.25 billion for the Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF) under the 2024 national budget.
“The new money for the CAF is P1.25 billion, which is itemized in the 2024 national budget. The amount is 150 percent higher than the P500 million for the CAF in 2023,” he said in a statement.
Campos is one of the vice chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations.
“The CAF will directly benefit cancer patients, persons living with cancer, cancer survivors and highrisk individuals,” he said.
“The fund will [cover] the cost of cancer screening, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and its care-related components, including the required diagnostics and laboratories for eight priority cancer types,” he said.
The Department of Health (DoH) has identified the eight priority cancer types as breast cancer; childhood cancers; gynecologic cancers; liver cancer, including colorectal and other digestive tract cancers; head and neck cancers, including thyroid; lung cancer; and prostate, renal and urinary bladder cancer.
The CAF may be availed of through DoH-run hospitals.
Campos said that the P1.25 billion was on top of the P1 billion earmarked for 2024 for the National Integrated Cancer Control Program.
February is National Cancer Awareness Month.
More PhilHealth share
Meanwhile, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said on Sunday that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) should shoulder more of the cost of private hospitalization.
Romualdez said that he wanted to meet with officials of the PhilHealth and the Department of Health to discuss how to expand PhilHealth members’ benefits.
He said that many of their constituents asked him if the amount shouldered by PhilHealth in the billing and doctors’ fees could be increased.
The lawmaker said that he would find a solution that would not involve legislation because making a law would take a long time.
“Definitely, we hear our constituents. Therefore, we have to do something about it,” Romualdez said.