Cancer treatments have become a focal point after responsibility for the costs shifts to wellbeing services counties.Image: Roni Rekomaa / LehtikuvaYle News14:28Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) has joined cancer organisations in raising concerns over equal access to treatment after social insurance agency Kela stopped reimbursing certain costly cancer medicines in July.Johanna Mattson, a senior medical director at HUS Cancer Center, told Yle on Monday that Kela's new reimbursement policy for medicines could lead to greater inequality between patients in different parts of the country.Earlier this month, Kela announced that it would stop reimbursing certain expensive medicines when they are administered in public healthcare. The move shifts the cost to Finland's 21 wellbeing services counties and affects, among others, some cancer treatments.Kela's medical director, Mikko Floréen, meanwhile said that the agency's decision is in line with the law. He added that the decision did not represent an actual change in which medicines qualify for reimbursement, but rather clarified existing practices to bring them into line with current legislation.Although the move has drawn criticism, Floréen said he welcomed the public debate over medicine reimbursement policies.Cancer organisations said they fear that access to treatment could increasingly depend on a patient's financial situation. The change does not apply to treatments provided in private healthcare or reimbursement decisions made before the start of July.