We fully understand the points raised by Ms Hurng Yu Hui in her letter, "Cancer care is a painful balance between cost and quality of life" (Aug 20).

The Government has accepted the MediShield Life Council's recommendations to create a list of clinically proven and cost-effective outpatient cancer drug treatments for MediShield Life claims.

We will set more granular claim limits to provide more targeted coverage based on the cost of each treatment, and also extend subsidies to more cancer drugs and to more patients. With these changes, more patients will pay less for clinically proven and cost-effective treatments.

At the same time, by moving away from the current system, where MediShield Life claims are a flat $3,000 per month for all cancer drugs, we remove the incentives for drug companies to charge prices that maximise the claims.

This enables the Ministry of Health to negotiate with drug companies and procure cancer drugs at better prices and reduce costs for patients.

For Ms Hurng's targeted therapy, an alternative targeted therapy that treats the cancer in a similar manner, and is cost-effective and eligible for MediShield Life claim and subsidy, is available.

Further, if the supplier of Ms Hurng's drug is prepared to lower its prices to cost-effective levels, the drug may also in time be included in the list eligible for MediShield Life claims and subsidy.

Keeping our drug prices affordable is a constant work in progress, and will depend on public policy on subsidy and MediShield Life claims, market pricing practices, and patient preferences. There are trade-offs involved and we will continue to work on it.

Cham Dao Song

Director (Finance Policy)

Healthcare Finance Division

Ministry of Health