Contrary to the patients’ expectations, the Ministry of Health did not increase the availability of therapy for lung cancer patients. The Ministry has just published the draft of the March reimbursement list, which disappointed patients and a dozen or so patient organizations from all over the country, which on their behalf, in November last year, asked for an amendment to the National Health Fund’s financial plan and the establishment of the principle of allocating 17 percent. fund expenditure on effective and safe drugs. It is not known if and when lung cancer patients will stop being treated worse than other groups of patients.
Patients are demanding an answer to the question of what was the reason for such decisions, the planned date of the necessary changes and why the government treats cancer patients unequally. Lung cancer is the last of the four most common cancers in which patients have not received a new effective treatment option in the first or second line of treatment.
Lung cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm in Poland. More than 23 patients die from it every year, more than from breast cancer and colorectal cancer combined. In recent years, patient organizations and experts have called for profound changes in disease prevention and treatment organization. They also propose to increase the availability of therapy for patients with advanced disease who cannot undergo surgery. In November of last year, it seemed as if the process of returning to normal had begun. The Ministry of Health increased access to treatment in the third line. At the same time, over the last two years, the ministry has made positive reimbursement decisions for large groups of patients with prostate cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Despite this, for many months the government has been ignoring the sick who are struggling with the disease unequally.
The expenditures of the National Health Fund increase in 2018 by over five billion zlotys. However, the reimbursement budget grows eight times slower than the costs of other types of benefits. In November last year, a dozen or so patient organizations from all over the country called for an amendment to the National Health Fund’s financial plan and establishing the principle of allocating 17 percent. fund expenditure on effective and safe drugs. In recent weeks, representatives of the Ministry of Health have repeatedly publicly argued about the existence of a direct correlation between expenditure on reimbursement and the possibility of issuing positive reimbursement decisions. Despite this, no amendment to the Fund’s financial plan has been announced. It is also not known when lung cancer patients will be able to count on the end of unequal treatment compared to other groups of patients.