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Mahesh

21/11/23 06:51 AM IST

Free cancer care alone won’t help India fight cancer

In News
  • By 2040, according to one estimate, 20 lakh people a year will be diagnosed with cancer in India. Cancer is already the third leading cause of death in India.
Expenses for cancer
  • The government provides free cancer care. These devastating costs arise in the private sector.
  • Direct medical OOPE includes doctor’s consultation fees, cost of medicines, and medical tests, and direct non-medical OOPE includes costs of transport, accommodation, and food for people travelling to larger cities for treatment.
  • Indirect OOPE accounts for loss of productive hours and/or income.
  • The financial fallout of cancer is worse when it affects the breadwinner of the family.
  • Since cancer care is concentrated in major cities, most people from rural India, where 60-70% of the country’s population lives, have to leave home and travel hundreds of kilometres to seek care.
  • The cost of accommodation in these cities adds to their woes.
Government measures
  • Borrowing money and selling assets has been identified to be a common strategy that disproportionately affects people from rural areas.
  • Governments have identified these issues in some parts of the country and made some efforts to address them.
  • For example, in 2012, the Haryana government made transport for patients with cancer and one caregiver in public buses from their places of residence to their places of treatment free. Similar efforts have been made in Kerala, where patients with cancer are eligible for 50% concession on public bus tickets.
  • To improve compliance with care, patients travelling to seek care in Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Center in Assam are given financial support for travel as well as free accommodation and food.
  • In 2017, Delhi launched the Arogya Kosh scheme to reduce the burden on public health centres and avoid treatment delays. Here, residents of Delhi making less than Rs 3 lakh a year are eligible to get certain tests, like ultrasound and CT scans, in private health centres for free.
  • Haryana, Tripura, and Kerala have also floated a ‘cancer pension’ to financially assist patients with advanced-stage cancer: Rs 2,500 per month in Haryana and Rs 1,000 in Tripura and Kerala.
Way forward
  • The most obvious solution to such post-cancer problems is to open publicly funded cancer care centres in every nook and corner of India. Of course, at this time, this sounds unrealistic and will require decades to implement.
  • But the fact is that until cancer care becomes as accessible as diabetes or hypertension care, we will need to continue to provide financial support to those who are suffering, either directly or indirectly, and their families. Free cancer care alone won’t save our people from poverty and suffering.
Source- The Hindu

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