Chemotherapy (Photo: Kate Wasserman)

According to the report, published in the Lancet Oncology, there are 163 cancer patients for every 100,000 people, a number which is much lower than in the US or European Union. However, the mortality in South America is almost double compared to developed countries. Researchers estimate that by the year 2030 there could 1.7m diagnosed cancer cases and an estimated million people could die because of it.

According to the report, 54% of Latin American population has a very small or no access at all to medical care. “We found out that there is big difference between what is actually going on and what lawmakers expect will happen,” said Paul Goss, oncologist and professor at Harvard University, stressing fears that the region could be overwhelmed by increasing cancer rates.

Goss also pointed out that there are two Latin Americas: “the elite minority with an access to the latest advances in medicine, in this case prevention, treatment and palliative care; and the other majority who only receive attention in the terminal phase of the disease.”

One of the main reasons for the sustained increase in cancer mortality is the late diagnosis of some types that are curable. Felicia Knaul, another doctor and professor at Harvard involved in the study, stated: “If breast cancer is diagnosed early, 70%-90% of women are likely to survive. Throughout Latin America, the disease is diagnosed too late, so that the chances of survival fall down to 25%.”

The specialist, who is also the head of researchers, said funds typically target the expensive treatment of terminally ill patients, with few resources directed towards prevention and control. Among the recommendations, Goss suggested the creation of clinics and the training of medical staff to nurse terminal patients in their homes. In the long term, he argued, this would not only mean a reduction of expenses, as hospitalisation is the most expensive part of treatment, but it would provide a better environment for the patients who would be next to their loved ones.

The report’s main recommendation is to put more money into prevention and control campaigns, while ensuring the poorer segments of society receive access to public healthcare. “There is a tidal wave of a cancer problem occurring on the continent, and we want people to be aware of that and take action to avert what could be a catastrophic situation,” concluded Goss.

The Ecuadorian government announced today that it is looking to introduce a health  plan covering its citizens living as illegal immigrants in Spain and the United States.

Ecuadorian immigrants who lost their health coverage in Spain because of the recent crisis would therefore be able to access to medical insurance provided by the Rafael Correa’s government, the news website Infobae reported today. Immigrants who do not have insurance in the United States would also fall under the same umbrella.

Ramiro Gonzalez, chairman of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), said he hopes the plan will be introduced this year. Gonzalez will travel on 20th May to New York to address the situation of Ecuadorians who have no access to health services because they lack documents.

Gonzalez said 80% of Ecuadorians living in the United States are illegal immigrants. The opposite happens in Spain, where only 20% of Ecuadorians migrants do not have official papers.

The head of the IESS said he expects the agreement with the United States to create the “first insurance policy giving extraterritorial health care to the volunteers affiliates.”

Gonzalez also recalled that Ecuador has an agreement with the Spanish Social Security for “pension portability,” allowing people from both nations to retire in Ecuador or Spain, regardless of which country they worked in.

The Ecuadorian Embassy in Spain also expressed “deep concern” about the spending cuts announced by Mariano Rajoy’s government, especially those affecting public health as they will affect only the “most vulnerable immigrants,” read a statement released by the embassy.

The cuts will save the state an estimated €500 milllion. So far, Spanish law states that foreigners who are registered to a municipality “are entitled to healthcare under the same conditions of Spanish people.”

The Ecuadorian community is the the largest one from Latin America in Spain.

About six million foreigners of all nationalities call Spain home, according to statistics released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Almost 460,000 of them are paperless, even though the figure is believed to be extremely inaccurate. Most of them come from EU countries, and therefore have no obligation to sign up to the tax registry.

Last night the House of Representatives passed a law concerning the regulating private health insurance plans.

The law of regulating the system of prepaid medical care, past by 190 votes to zero and provides new benefits for users, but is resisted by the major part of the private sector of companies.

The 190 votes were supported by the greater number of parties, while 29 votes, mainly from the ‘PRO’ and the ‘Coalición Cívica (CC)’, were abstained.

The bill provides that, after a certain number of years of contributions, the prepaid may not increase fees for the older members; age can not be a criterion for rejecting the admission. The contributions of younger members will widely redeem the gap.
 
The House accepted the changes made by the Senate last year, which were voted on the original penalty in 2008 by the House. It is a draft framework which Congress already tried to discuss for several years in a way to regulate the activities of private companies that provide medical services for more than four million people in the country.
 
“This law creates a regulatory framework and was not an activity which, besides being an activity for profit, concerned a good basic for social protection without control”, according to the legislator.

Radicalist Agustín Portela, vice president of the commission of the House of Health, stated that the topic “has a strong social implication” but questioned some points, arguing that “it was not armed with the sense of establishing a regulatory ensure a balance of prepaid system works.”
 
According to Graciela Camano, of the Peronist block, this law “is going to succeed in changing the status of the patients, who will stop to be users and instead will become patients.” She added that this will be an important step.

Claudio Lozano, the deputy of the party ‘Proyecto Sur’, emphasised that: “This law is necessary,” and he stressed the importance of market regulation of private health insurance plans and said it is “a step up from the current situation.”

In contrary, deputy of the ‘ PRO’, Gabriela Michetti considered that the rule “creates a significant risk of declining quality of services of one of the subsystems and ignores the other subsystems.”

The law, must be regulated by the Executive Power within 120 days after its publication, while companies will have a period of 180 days for the adaptation of this framework.

The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, announced that he will send a proposal to the National Assembly to restore some taxes repealed at the beginning of his government. The aim is provide free universal health care.

The president called for raising the level of debate.

He stated that if they want “universal health care as stated in the Constitution and free medicine, they have to double the health budget.”

The president said that they could double the budget of the state with respect to the percentage of the GDP.

The health budget is held at 3% and would have to go to 6% which “means about US 3 billion for health.”

He said that they seek to restore the same taxes that were repealed at the beginning of his government and were poorly used, for example, 5% on cell phones and VAT.

He noted that granting “free drugs to hospitals would help the poor and this would be covered by tax charges.”

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.