Cancer patients to pay less for drugs, treatment

Cancer patients under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) cover will only pay 20 percent of the drug costs henceforth.

Millions of Nigerians are battling various forms of cancer with the 80 percent off believed to be a massive financial cut to assist their survival.

NHIA disclosed the 80 percent off cancer drug initiative in a statement on Sunday by NHIA in celebration of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The authority said the move was to reduce the financial burden of the disease on patients and their families.

It further announced increased support for radiotherapy, diagnostic tests and other aspects of cancer care.

“The critical measure of the insurance system should no longer be the number of Nigerians carrying insurance records, but whether those records provide meaningful protection when illness strikes,” the NHIA Director-General, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, said.

“Under the cost-sharing arrangement, Roche bears 50 per cent of the cost of selected medicines, the NHIA contributes 30 per cent, while the patient pays 20 per cent. The initiative shields eligible patients from 80 per cent of the cost of the affected medicines.

“NHIA has also introduced additional support ranging from up to N400,000 to full coverage for eligible radiotherapy patients, complementing existing benefits for cancer care. These include mammography, CT and MRI scans, bone scans, cancer-related laboratory and diagnostic tests and radiotherapy,” the statement reads.

Other cancer-related benefits covered under its programmes include mammography, CT and MRI scans, bone scans, laboratory and diagnostic tests, and radiotherapy.

Depending on the applicable benefit package, the insurance programmes also provide support for screening, surgery, chemotherapy and follow-up care.

The NHIA said the measures were particularly important because of the scale of Nigeria’s cancer burden and the high out-of-pocket expenditure associated with treatment.

More than 23 million Nigerians are currently enrolled in the national health insurance system, according to the NHIA, which said the expanding pool provided a platform for extending interventions for cancer and other high-cost diseases.

The government is also upgrading six Oncology Centres of Excellence across the country.

According to the statement, centres at the University College Hospital, Ibadan; University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu; and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, are already fully operational with specialised equipment, including brachytherapy machines.

Other initiatives include the Cancer Access Partnership programme, through which 27 anti-cancer medicines in 48 formulations are provided across 14 federal tertiary hospitals, as well as the Cancer Health Fund for indigent patients with breast, cervical and prostate cancers.