A law that requires social and prepaid works to provide full coverage for the care of children and adolescents with cancer and the National State to provide economic assistance to families was approved this Thursday night unanimously in the Senate of the Nation.
The norm, which creates a comprehensive program to reduce morbidity and mortality, was approved by 64 to 0, in a venue whose stands were filled with families of children with the disease who applauded when the vote was held.
The opinion specifies that the Public Health System, social and prepaid works must provide children and adolescents with cancer one hundred percent coverage in benefits for prevention, promotion, diagnosis, therapeutic practices and all those technologies that could be directly or indirectly related to the cancer diagnosis.
It is also determined -in addition- that the national State must grant financial assistance equivalent to the amount of the Universal Allowance for Children with disabilities.
The new norm establishes the obligation to develop programmatic guidelines and practice guides for detection, diagnosis and treatment and assist cancer centers to provide quality care that respects all the rights of children and adolescents with cancer..
It also proposes disseminating and training in strategies to optimize early diagnosis in childhood cancer, as well as managing the operation of the network of cancer centers that care for these patients nationwide.
On the other hand, it seeks to train health teams through the Cancer Human Resources Training Scholarship Program, and to carry out follow-up and clinical care after cancer treatment.
While the treatment lasts, the enforcement authority, through the corresponding body, must grant children and adolescents with cancer Priority parking in reserved and marked areas for the vehicles that transport them.
Also free use of public transport and collective land transport in accordance with the provisions of the law for the comprehensive protection of people with disabilities and, for patients with families in a situation of social vulnerability, plans and other assistance measures will be adopted.
Access to adequate housing or the adaptation of the family home to the demands that their condition demands of them must also be guaranteed.
In the case of children or adolescents with outpatient treatment and must move and stay with their family group more than 100 kilometers from their place of residence, the family will be guaranteed access to a housing subsidy to cover the costs of location of housing.
Also one of the parents or legal representatives of a child or adolescent suffering from cancer will have special leave without pay during the term that appears in the prescription of the treating doctor of the oncopediatric patienteither.
During the leave, the person in a dependency relationship will receive from the ANSES the corresponding allowances and an amount equal to the remuneration that corresponds to the period of leave.
The president of the Senate Health Commission, Pablo Yedlin, stressed that “there is more and more hope” in the treatment of cancer in children and that “the first clear cause of childhood cancer is leukemia.”
“80 percent of cancer patients in Argentina are treated in public hospitals. express.
Jujuy radical Mario Fiad stressed that “the norm comes to give answers to families who are experiencing the anguish of the disease and who also suffer from a lack of resources and transfers.”
“We must highlight the work of all the organizations and families that work intensely to make their rights visible and effective,” he remarked.
