On January 15th, the Senate Health Committee ruled in favor of moving forward with the debate on the National Cancer Bill, promoted by the Executive branch (Bulletin No. 12.292-11). The bill could reach the Senate’s floor next week for general discussion and after that it must return to the Committee for article-by-article analysis. On January 8th, Health Minister Emilio Santelices answered questions regarding funding, drug coverage and prevention policies, and on the implementation of the National Cancer Registry. At the regional level, Paraguay enacted Law 6.266 on the Comprehensive Care for People with Cancer.

National Cancel Law will, according to Santelices, be financed with the budget and investment items approved for the development of the National Cancer Plan, which total more than 20 billion pesos. Drug coverage is supported by the GES (Universal Health Guarantees) and by Law 25.850 (the “Ricarte Soto Law”), the latter financing high-cost diagnoses and treatments reliant on drugs and medical devices proven to be effective. In 2019, an additional fund of 4.5 billion pesos will be available through the PPV-FONASA, extending coverage to issues that “are outside GES”.

In terms of prevention policy, Santelices said the provision of the human papillomavirus vaccine will be extended to the male population, the coverage of the papanicolau will be increased from 50% to 70% and that of mammograms from 36% to 70%. Finally, he stressed the importance of the National Cancer Registry to ensure the traceability of patients from the time they start diagnostic studies. The registry is in its first phase of implementation and will be fully developed by the end of 2019. However, if this Law is enacted it would give further impetus to the Registry because it would become mandatory to report cancer cases.

Representatives of Chile without Cancer, Arturo López Pérez and Gist Chile Foundations, as well as different scientific societies, were also invited to present an overview of the issue at the national level. They also gave their opinions on the creation of a national fund with public-private participation, a national oncology network, training of specialized human resources and on the National Cancer Registry.