Government Regulates Comprehensive Protection Regime for Children and Adolescents with Cancer

The Law No. 27674, issued on July 18, 2022, approved the framework of comprehensive protection for children and adolescents with cancer to reducing the mortality of children and adolescents (NNA) with cancer, guarantee their rights, and create a national comprehensive care program for them.

The law establishes a series of rights for NNAs, among them:

1. Receiving the best available care, giving priority to outpatient treatment, and seeing that the stay in hospital is as brief as possible.
2. Having the company of their family or care referents, allowing them to stay in the hospital with them without having to pay additional expenses for this.
3. Allowing NNAs to give their informed consent.
4. Providing NNAs and their families with psychological assistance.
5. Guaranteeing access to rest, play, and education.

Likewise, the law provides patients with families in situation of social vulnerability with some measures guaranteeing access to adequate housing, in accordance with what their medical condition requires. It also provides housing allowances for the families that require so, when the NNA is treated as an outpatient and the treatment facility is further than 100 kilometers from their home.

Main Provisions in the Decree No. 68/2023

The Decree No. 68/2023, published on February 9, 2023, regulates the abovementioned law, and appoints as decentralized entity the National Cancer Institute (INC), giving it the power to create –within the framework of its competence– complementary or clarifying rules to effectively apply the Law. No. 27674. Further, the decree establishes that:

1. Those registered in the Argentinian Child Cancer Registry and under active treatment will receive a credential. This credential will show the condition of beneficiary of the law.
2. The subjects of the law will receive an allowance equivalent to the amount of the Universal Child with Disability Allowance. The entity in charge of this will be the Argentine Social Security Administration (ANSES).
3. The subjects of the law will also receive a credential through the Ministry of Transport that will allow them and a companion to travel for assistance reasons without charge in public transport and in long-distance transport. The credential will also allow them to park vehicles without charge.
4. A Coordinating Center will be established as an efficient system of reference and counter reference, securing correct and timely diagnosis and treatment. This will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Health.
5. The National Laboratory Network of Histo-Compatibility will be reinforced to include the existing laboratories in Argentina, to speed up the genetic classification of the samples.
6. Parents are representatives in charge of NNAs we will receive leaves of absence for the period of active treatment. This will be carried out through ANSES.
7. The Ministry of Social Development will enforce and execute what is established in the Law No. 27674 regarding housing.
8. Access to and continuity of NNAs education must be guaranteed. The Ministry of Education will be responsible for this.