Include cancer diagnosis under AB-PMJAY: Panel

With India’s cancer count on a steady rise, lawmakers have asked the Centre to expand the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, a government-funded medical insurance scheme for the poor, to incorporate cancer diagnosis and throw it open to the middle class.

Also, with the majority of cancer patients requiring radiotherapy, the parliamentarians recommended increasing the number of radiotherapy machines in hospitals across the country to reduce the waiting time.

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According to the WHO, India requires nearly 1,300 radiotherapy machines, but the country has just about 700, mostly in the private sector and concentrated in around 100 cities.

The MPs further suggested setting up of guest houses near cancer hospitals so that patients requiring radiotherapy could stay in cities having such facilities “without being forced to spend on accommodation in hotels or hostels in the city”, which adds to the cost of cancer treatment.

These are some of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health that reviewed the entire landscape of cancer care in the backdrop of an alarming rise in the number of cancer cases and death. The report was tabled in both Houses of Parliament last week.

India’s cancer mortality is expected to rise from approximately 8 lakh in 2018 to about 13 lakh in 2035. As per an estimate by the Indian Council of Medical Research, every year 14 lakh new cancer cases are reported.

The parliamentarians have advised inclusion of oral therapies that have already been listed as essential (mandatory) or preferred (cost-effective with evidence of efficacy) by National Cancer Grid under the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY scheme that currently caters to 10.74 crore poor families.

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The health ministry has also been asked to review the existing cancer treatment packages covered under the scheme.

“Most curative treatment is affordable, especially when patients get treatment under the AB-PMJAY scheme of the government,” the panel said in the report. “The Committee recommends including various types of necessary diagnostic tests under the AB-PMJAY so that timely detection of cancer can improve the cancer mortality rate.”

The House panel’s report comes at a time when a growing body of evidence shows people’s vulnerability to “financial toxicity” - the economic burden experienced by patients undergoing cancer treatment.

One such study on 350 cancer patients by researchers at NIPER in Bihar shows that nearly 80% of cancer patients participating in the research suffered from financial toxicity.

Evidence from earlier economic burden studies among cancer survivors in India also indicate that more than three-quarters of the total costs are financed by patients as out-of-pocket payments.