MANILA, Philippines — The cancer assistance fund (CAF) can now be utilized as the government has issued the implementing guidelines for the over P500-million allocation intended to help cancer patients.
The CAF guidelines are contained in a joint memorandum circular signed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Health (DOH).
In a message to The STAR, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said this means the DBM would release funds as long as the requirements stated in the circular are met.
“Under the memorandum circular, the DBM should – upon request – process and issue budget-related action documents to implement the provision of the CAF,” Pangandaman said.
A special provision of the 2022 budget of the DOH allotted P529.2 million for the use of CAF to fund the cost of cancer treatment and its care-related components.
These include the needed diagnostics and laboratories for the eight priority cancer types such as breast, childhood, gynecologic, liver, adult blood, head and neck, and prostate, renal and urinary.
While the budget is actually part of this year’s allocation, there has been an impasse on the guidelines that resulted in the delay of the fund’s utilization.
Cancer remains among the leading causes of deaths in the country. As of April this year, cancer ranked third among the top causes of mortality among Filipinos.
Currently, several public health mechanisms supporting cancer control services are being implemented such as health promotion, early screening and detection interventions in the primary care setting, hospitalization benefits and access to free cancer medicine.
Despite these interventions, the DBM and DOH said out-of-pocket expenditures in cancer care remain high.
The CAF aims to complement existing financial support mechanisms for various cancer care and control services that are not yet covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
It will fund outpatient and inpatient cancer control services including but not limited to diagnostics, therapeutic procedures and other cancer medicine needed for the treatment and management of cancer.
The CAF will be managed by the DOH and will be provided through a sub-allotment mechanism to DOH hospitals and through fund-transfer for non-DOH hospitals.