NZ price of cancer report

Tuesday December 20, 2011

The Price of Cancer: The public price of registered cancer in New Zealand

The annual public cost of melanoma in New Zealand is $24.4 million (based on 2008 incidence), according to a recently published Ministry of Health report.

As outlined in an on-line summary, the report “calculates the annual price of all cancers registered with the New Zealand Cancer Registry in 2008, and then estimates the drivers and likely magnitude of price change 10 years into the future, based on previous cancer incidence projections”.

The following key points about melanoma are provided on page 19 of the report:

• The mean six-year public price for patients with melanoma is $10,804.
• There were 2255 incidence cases of melanoma registered in 2008.
• The estimated annual public cost of melanoma is $24.4 million (based on 2008 incidence).
• The mean six-year private hospital price for a patient with melanoma is $421.
• Mean costs for melanoma are driven predominantly by public hospital discharge (62%) primary care consults (11%) and outpatient attendance (10%).
  

According to the report, “more than $500 million dollars a year is spent by the public health system on diagnosing and treating cancer and this is set to increase more than 20 per cent by 2021”.

Source:

Ministry of Health. 2011. The Price of Cancer: The public price of registered cancer in New Zealand. Wellington: Ministry of Health.
http://www.health.govt.nz/publications/price-cancer-public-price-registered-cancer-new-zealand