HEALTH CONCERNS:Data from the National Health Insurance Administration shows it spent 20.4 percent more on drugs to treat liver cancer than in 2013

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 17, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

With cancer diagnoses rising steadily nationwide, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said that it spent nearly NT$80 billion (US$2.56 billion) on cancer treatment last year, with the majority going to therapies for colorectal cancer.

The agency’s latest statistics showed that last year alone it allocated NT$78.2 billion to cancer treatment, accounting for about 13.3 percent of its total NT$590 billion in expenses for the year.

Colorectal cancer treatment topped the spending list with NT$10.9 billion, followed by lung cancers with NT$10.8 billion, breast cancers with NT$10.3 billion, liver cancers with NT$8.4 billion and oral cancers with NT$6.6 billion, the statistics showed.

Rounding out the top 10 most expensive cancers were leukemia with NT$4 billion, non-Hodgkin lymphomas at NT$3.9 billion, prostate cancers with NT$3.1 billion, stomach cancers with NT$2.5 billion and esophageal cancers, NT$2.3 billion.     [FULL  STORY]