The National Youth for Peace (NYP) has called on the government of Ghana to fully incorporate the treatment of breast cancer into the country’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Development Diaries reports that despite breast cancer being among the leading causes of death globally, patients continue to find it difficult to afford medication and treatment.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimated that about 18.11 million deaths were attributed to cancer in 2020 (excluding skin cancer) in Ghana. Breast cancer accounted for 12.14 percent of those deaths.
According to the NYP, the cost of managing breast cancer, especially advanced cases, is usually beyond the financial means of patients and their families hence leading to most deaths associated with the disease.
The organisation argued that the level of services and financial barriers to patients amounts to an ‘unethical denial’ as cancer patients must be given the same level of treatment as other patients.
‘The NHIS does not entirely cover the treatment of breast cancer. It only subsidises chemotherapy which is part of breast cancer treatment’, Ghanaian Times quoted NYP’s Executive Director, Eric Baffoe Nyarko, as saying.
‘But, some patients require more than just chemotherapy to get cured of the disease’.
Surgery and radiotherapy, which costs several thousands of cedis, are also part of most breast cancer treatments in Ghana as many of the cases are detected at middle and late stages.
‘Radiotherapy is very expensive so many patients default to treatment because they can’t afford it. Many patients depend of the benevolence of NGOs and philanthropists to be able to afford treatment’, Nyarko added.
Development Diaries calls on the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, the National Health Insurance Authority and other stakeholders to urgently review the NHIS to cover the treatment of breast cancer.
Photo source: AMISON Public Information