Financial Support

The cost of cancer care continues to climb. With the cost of newer cancer therapies reaching $10,000 to $60,000 or more a month, many patients are facing serious financial difficulties.

Although patients may have insurance coverage for the drug they need, often the insurance doesn’t cover all the costs, and the patient may need help with expensive health insurance premium and copayment costs, transportation to the site of service, nursing help, and other services.

As the US population ages, the number of patients diagnosed with and treated for cancer will increase. Cancer costs are also likely to increase, as new and more expensive treatments, such as targeted therapies that are specifically directed at the tumor, become the standards of care.

Although the incidence of childhood cancer has been increasing over the past 30 years, advances in treatment have also led to increased survival rates.

People really want to be supportive, but often they need to be told what will really help. It’s not always easy to figure out how best to support you and your loved ones.

Read through the “8 empowering C’s of coping with cancer” as introduced by Allison Schaffer, LCSW, at a SURVIVORville meeting.

For patients with cancer, risk factors for infertility include the patient’s fertility levels before treatment, type of cancer treatment, and age.

Here is Tracy Foster, President of Lash Group, a part of AmerisourceBergen, with financial advice for those dealing with cancer care costs.

Here is some advice on how to pay for cancer care.

Financial assistance is available from programs such as the American Cancer Society’s Health Insurance Assistance Service (HIAS) that can connect patients with cancer with health insurance specialists.