Cancer survivors are cancelling care due to costs

An article published by the American Cancer Society on June 14, 2010, tells us that over two million cancer survivors, or 18 percent, canceled receiving care for their needed medical treatment in the prior year due to the rising costs. According to the article, the overall health and well-being of these patients is the crucial issue.

An examination was conducted at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, and the team was led by Kathryn Weaver, PhD, MPH, to discover rate of occurrences that cancer patients chose to cancel their care due to financial costs. They were also trying to determine if cancer history, race or ethnicity could also have a role in determining the outcome. Between 30 and 40 thousand households were surveyed in the United States, and out of those 6,602 were cancer survivors, while 104,364 had no history of cancer. These surveys were taken between 2003 and 2006.

Those that were most likely to cancel according to the statistics were adults under the age of 65, in fact, there was a 55 percent greater chance that they would either delay or forgo treatments as the same age group that did not have cancer. Cancer survivors have medical treatments that physicians believe are necessary for many years after their condition is diagnosed.

The type of care that patients have chosen to cancel on in the past year has amount to 7.8 percent medical care, 9.0 percent prescription drugs, 11.3 percent dental care and 2.7 percent mental health care. Of medical care and prescription drugs, there was no specific information published. Research will be done to see how cancelling treatment will effect the quality of life for patients. The health care reform will also have to be taken into consideration.