The increasing number of cancer cases leads to increased treatment costs, especially new generation cancer drugs, creating great pressure on patients and the Health Insurance Fund.
Dr. Dao Van Tu, Head of Quan Su On-Demand Treatment Department, K Hospital, said that cancer is becoming a notable socio-economic issue, because treatment costs are increasingly high while the ability to pay for many patients is limited.
In 2023, the Health Insurance Fund will spend more than VND 7,500 billion on cancer treatment drugs, among the group with the highest spending level among the total amount of funds spent on drugs. In 2024, cancer treatment and immunomodulatory drugs continue to be in the leading group in terms of payments, accounting for 16.2% of total health insurance drug spending and 41.3% of payments for generic drugs.
The burden of cancer treatment costs does not only occur in Vietnam. According to IQVIA data, the global cancer drug market will reach about 223 billion USD in 2023 and is forecast to exceed 400 billion USD in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of about 11.5-14.5%.
In Vietnam, the cancer drug market size is forecast to continue to increase. According to Statista, this market could reach about 530.2 million USD by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate in the 2025-2029 period of about 7.43%.
Lung, liver, breast and colon cancers are among the common diseases, accounting for about half of new cases. Smoking, environmental pollution and lifestyle factors are considered important causes contributing to the increased disease burden. Each year Vietnam records about 180,000 new cancer cases and 120,000 deaths.
In big cities, patients have many opportunities to access specialized hospitals, diagnostic tests and new treatments. Meanwhile, patients in rural areas may have to travel long distances for treatment, incurring travel costs, accommodation costs and time off work.
For low-income families, expenses other than medicine and hospital fees become a significant burden. This creates a spiral where the disease is detected late, leading to the need for more complex treatment, higher costs, and reducing the patient's ability to pursue long-term treatment.
In treatment, traditional chemotherapy drugs are relatively popular and are mostly paid for by health insurance according to the patient's scope and benefit level. However, the story becomes different with targeted drugs and immunotherapy - therapies that open up opportunities to prolong life and improve quality of life for patients, but often come with high treatment costs. Many advanced drugs have high prices, in some cases the cost can be equivalent to 40-50 times the average income per capita. This makes accessibility depend significantly on the level of insurance coverage, treatment indications and financial capacity of each family.
"Patients who are not covered by health insurance or have to pay large co-pays, the cost of medicine can become a barrier, forcing them to delay, interrupt or choose less expensive treatment options," Dr. Tu said.
According to some reports, in the last 5 years, 125 new cancer drugs have been introduced to the global market, nearly half of the total number of cancer drugs developed in the past two decades. The explosion of new drugs means more treatment options, but also raises questions about access and sustainability of medical costs.
Without measures to control prices, evaluate cost-effectiveness, and expand risk-sharing mechanisms, the proliferation of new treatments could continue to increase the overall cost of cancer care. Cancer is therefore becoming a problem beyond the hospital.
A sick person not only incurs medical examination and treatment costs but may also lose the ability to work, reduce income and need relatives to take time off work to take care of them. On a social scale, these impacts reduce labor productivity and increase welfare costs, while resources for health must be increasingly greater.
The problem of controlling the cancer burden therefore needs to be approached from both sides. It is to reduce the number of preventable diseases through control of tobacco, pollution and risk factors; At the same time, improve early detection and ensure patients have access to effective treatment methods at reasonable costs.
