Herceptin funding – Now 12 months treatment paid for.
Until now, in New Zealand, Herceptin, a treatment for a Her 2 Positive Breast cancer has only been available with government funding for a ridiculous 9 weeks. Every other OECD country already offered courses of 12 months to sufferers who would benefit from the drug. Pharmac – the government agency that makes Medical funding decisions (the equivalent of NICE in the UK) continuously refused to extend the funding beyond 9 weeks.A 12-month course of Herceptin costs around $120,000 with patients having to raise funds or sell their homes to find the money to pay for it. Now they get the treatment funded by the health service.
I wrote briefly about this situation in the book, and mentioned the book Cover Your Breasts by Alison Renfrew. The problem is, that many cancer treatments are not covered by the public health service – or by Private Medical insurance. So when considering your emigration to New Zealand – it pays to also make a serious consideration about having some decent Trauma Insurance – that will pay out large sums of money to cover these treatments.
As of today – women with HER 2 Neu Positive Breast cancer will not have to fund their own treatment.
My thanks to those women who fought to get Herceptin fully funded.
Use this site to click daily – and fund free mammograms.
Use this site to click daily – and fund free mammograms.
Related posts:
- Access to healthcare in New Zealand
- How to Sponsor your family into New Zealand Part 4: What is an acceptable standard of health?
- Why is customer service getting so bad in New Zealand?
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