Cancer Lottery
National Health Primary Care Trusts (PCT) are responsible for healthcare in their area. They individually control funding and this is the reason why NHS healthcare across the UK is very uneven. This is a contributory factor to why some people like to take out health insurance: they have a high standard of care no matter where they live.
PCTs are responsible for spending around 80% of the national health service budget. They work within the overiding rules of the Department of Health and there are 152 care trusts in England.
Cancer sufferers seem to be particularly vulnerable to the 'postcode lottery' as the situation has been coined in the media. According to the National Colorectal Cancer Audit 60% of patients have a major resection (where parts of the bowel are removed) but there are variations across the country from 20% to 80%.
Survival rates vary too. In Kensington and Chelsea patients have a 43.7% survival rate for lung cancer and only a 15.4% rate in Herefordshire. Breast cancer patient one year survival rates are 89.3% in Tower Hamlets and a 99% in Torbay.
In the private health arena there is a more standardised level of care. Bupa the private health insurance provider, for example, include Avastin in their range of allowed drugs but some NHS trusts do not. Avastin is a chemotherapy treatment used for metastatic or secondary cancer and it costs around £60,000 a year per patient. The drug does not cure cancer but it prolongs life.
If you are considering private medical insurance you may be deterred when you hear that the NHS is improving. This is true, there have been improvements in the NHS over the last five years. However the improvements are not standardised across the country. It still depends on where you live and which hospital you go to.
Health insurance for cancer is available from many private medical insurance providers although there is currently a great deal of debate in the industry about the high costs of cancer treatment and what the industry plans to do about cover for this illness in the long term.
PCTs are responsible for spending around 80% of the national health service budget. They work within the overiding rules of the Department of Health and there are 152 care trusts in England.
Cancer sufferers seem to be particularly vulnerable to the 'postcode lottery' as the situation has been coined in the media. According to the National Colorectal Cancer Audit 60% of patients have a major resection (where parts of the bowel are removed) but there are variations across the country from 20% to 80%.
Survival rates vary too. In Kensington and Chelsea patients have a 43.7% survival rate for lung cancer and only a 15.4% rate in Herefordshire. Breast cancer patient one year survival rates are 89.3% in Tower Hamlets and a 99% in Torbay.
In the private health arena there is a more standardised level of care. Bupa the private health insurance provider, for example, include Avastin in their range of allowed drugs but some NHS trusts do not. Avastin is a chemotherapy treatment used for metastatic or secondary cancer and it costs around £60,000 a year per patient. The drug does not cure cancer but it prolongs life.
If you are considering private medical insurance you may be deterred when you hear that the NHS is improving. This is true, there have been improvements in the NHS over the last five years. However the improvements are not standardised across the country. It still depends on where you live and which hospital you go to.
Health insurance for cancer is available from many private medical insurance providers although there is currently a great deal of debate in the industry about the high costs of cancer treatment and what the industry plans to do about cover for this illness in the long term.
Labels: health insurance, health insurance for cancer, private health insurance, private medical insurance
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