translated from Spanish: What would you do if you have a year of life?: the campaign to improve access to drugs for patients with cancer

Although the Government presented a few weeks ago the “National Plan of cancer”, which seeks to implement strategies and practices of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care of this disease, the underlying problem is that access to the most cutting-edge treatments does not have coverage in government programs.
According to figures from the Ministry of health, the year, 16 thousand patients require therapy, and only this 2018, 3,365 people were diagnosed with various types of cancer. In addition, cancer is the second leading cause of death in Chile, with 25% of the total of deaths and will become the first in 2020.
However, the GES and the law Ricarte Soto give coverage to treatments for certain types of cancer, none of these two programs guarantees 100% of the performance for optimal care of the disease.
In this context, the “Time of life” campaign, supported by a group of associations of patients, in order to raise awareness about this situation was generated.
As Myelofibrosis, myeloid leukemia, Melanoma, Kidney Cancer and cancers metastatic breast are examples of diseases that today do not have total coverage for cutting-edge treatments.
www.tiempodevida.cl web picks up this issue and the testimony of patients who live this harsh reality, under the provocative message “What would do if you become a year of life?”.
“Drug innovation located in the market medicines of last generation and first line for the different types of cancer. But anything they serve if the patients who need them cannot access them. In Chile, two-thirds of spending on medicines are paid by patients. For this reason, it is critical to the incorporation of this type of treatment in public health programmes, in order to help Chileans pockets”, they explain.

Original source in Spanish