The government is considering expanding free cancer screenings and providing publicly funded health checkups to people as young as 30, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday.
The agency is assessing the viability of President William Lai’s (賴清德) “Healthy Taiwan” plan, which could include the expansion of publicly funded screenings to more people, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said.
“However, nothing has been concluded, and everything is still being discussed,” Wu added.
Photo: Taipei Times
Lai announced the policy late last month, saying that the Presidential Office would establish a Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee with himself as convener.
The committee is expected to hold its first meeting next month.
The agency is still in talks with experts regarding suggestions that the age requirement for publicly funded screening of the five most common cancers would be adjusted, Wu said.
The agency’s proposals must go through the Executive Yuan for approval and funding reviews, he said.
The HPA hopes to ameliorate procedures for preventive screening, clinical diagnoses and treatment processes before forwarding the proposal to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, he added.
Publicly funded checkups for those aged 30 or older are also being discussed, he said.
Helicobacter pylori, a common cause of gastritis or peptic ulcer disease, is one of the risk factors that can lead to gastric cancer, he said, adding that the government is to launch a trial for gastric cancer screening — the sixth type of cancer screening that is publicly funded.
The agency is also mulling the possibility of having a seventh type of cancer added to the list, as well as expanding the age range for free breast cancer screenings to 40 to 75, Wu said.
Separately, Executive Yuan officials said on the condition of anonymity that the planned committee would also be involved in other programs such as low-dose computed tomography thorax exams to screen for lung cancer.
The Executive Yuan is to fund all policies from the presidential committee, while the Ministry of Health and Welfare is expected to execute them, the source said.
The president hopes to bring down the average bed-ridden time for elderly people — which is seven to nine years — and intends to do so by lowering cancer death rates, the source said.
Measures include early screening and relaxing age requirements for cancer screenings, and expanding the list of possible factors that would lead to diagnoses of cancer, such as environmental factors on top of family history and heavy smoking for lung cancer screening, the source said.
Hospitals are expected to promote greater awareness of cancer treatment and symptoms, they added.
The source also said the committee would promote food safety and is considering drafting a “healthy diet for citizens act,” which would increase nutritionists’ role in public health.
The government would also introduce new concepts, such as regenerative medicine, and allow Taiwan’s medical industry to be autonomous and self-reliant, they added.
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