Congress maintains veto on oral chemotherapy in health insurance

After a great articulation of government leaders, the National Congress maintained this Tuesday (8) President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) veto of the bill that would require health plans to provide coverage for oral cancer treatments at home. .

The veto had caused dissatisfaction among parliamentarians, since the bill had been approved with a large margin of votes, both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Federal Senate.

During the congressional session, 52 senators voted for the overthrow and 14 for the maintenance. In the Chamber, however, parties from the center guided in favor of maintaining the veto. The score went from 234 for the takedown to 209—at least 257 were needed.

Vetoes are overridden by an absolute majority vote of the two legislative houses – that is, in addition to the Senate, the House would also need to have overrode the veto.

Leader of the PP in the Chamber, deputy Cacá Leão (BA) defended the maintenance of Bolsonaro’s veto. According to him, after conversations with ANS (national supplementary health agency), Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and leaders of the Chamber and Senate, there was an assessment that it would be unfeasible to put the project into practice.

He stated that the government complied with an agreement to send a provisional measure with new supplementary health rules.

“What causes us to discuss this process is why the Federal Senate has not yet looked at and has not yet voted on this provisional measure that will resolve and that will serve as a meeting to resolve all these problems”, said Leão, guiding the maintenance of the veto and demanding the vote of the MP in the Senate.

Government leader in the Chamber, deputy Ricardo Barros (PP-PR) recalled that there was an agreement to maintain the president’s veto. “The interim measure is wide-ranging and is not just about cancer treatment,” he said.

Jair Bolsonaro’s veto divided the National Congress, with parliamentarians closer to the interests of the health plan articulating the maintenance of the president’s decision. On the other hand, the opposition also worked for the overthrow.

As a way of putting pressure on the government, the parliamentarians included the obligation in the provisional measure sent to Congress by the government. The original text brought new rules for supplementary health. Federal deputies took the opportunity to include the mandatory coverage of oral chemotherapy treatment in the final text that was approved. The proposal is on the agenda of the Senate plenary this Tuesday.

A law from the 1990s exempted health plans from guaranteeing pharmaceutical care for cancer outside the hospital.

Approved by a large majority of votes in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the bill vetoed by Bolsonaro, authored by Senator Reguffe (Podemos-DF), amends the Health Plans Law and makes coverage of home chemotherapy for oral and oral use mandatory. of drugs that control their side effects.

For this, it is necessary to have a medical prescription and the medicines used must be registered with Anvisa, with approved use for this purpose.

Outpatient and home oral antineoplastic treatments, radiotherapy procedures for cancer treatment and hemotherapy would be included among the mandatory coverage of private health care plans.

Drugs to control adverse effects of treatment and drugs adjuvant to cancer chemotherapy would also be covered.

The supply of medicines would be made by the health plans’ own network, accredited, contracted or referenced. The bill also establishes a period of 48 hours for the medication to be delivered and the supply can occur in a fractional way per cycle.

It would also be necessary to prove that the patient or his legal representative received the guidelines on the administration of the drug.

“To [tratamento] intravenous, just the authorization of Anvisa for the health plan to have to pay. why with the [tratamento] oral is different? It’s much more humane for a cancer patient to take a pill orally in the comfort of their own home,” Senator Reguffe said.

By vetoing the text, the federal government argued that, if it came into force, the measure would have a financial impact on the private plan market and this would result in an increase in the amounts paid by policyholders.

When the bill was approved, the National Federation of Supplemental Health upheld the presidential veto, saying the decision was appropriate for patient safety.

The entity, which concentrates the giants of the sector, argues that the automatic inclusion foreseen in the project would harm the “sustainability of a system that assists more than 48 million people”.