The study is considered the first of its kind, and it was carried out by a researcher at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center between 2003 and 2006. Results were published in the American Cancer Society’s medical journal Cancer. A sample of 6,600 cancer survivors was included in the health care-related study, which also included about 104,000 patients who were cancer free.
A March, 2010 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that cancer patients are now burdened with expenses totaling $90 billion per year as compared with $27 billion per year in 1990. Not only are the costs of medications and other treatments rising, but cancer survivors must now foot more of their own bill even if they do have insurance.
Hispanics and African Americans were the most likely to forego cancer treatment, as well as those under 65 years of age. Cancer survivors over 65 receive Medicare in most cases and are therefore more likely to afford treatment. Those under 65 were between 1.5 and 2 times more likely to take a pass on medical services.
The study was not specific enough to pinpoint exactly which services were foregone by cancer patients, other than to say that 7.8 percent of patients skipped medical care, about 10 percent did not keep up with their prescriptions, 11 percent put off dental care, and about 3 percent delayed mental health care. Kathryn Weaver, who led the study out of Winston-Salem, N.C., believes that only a small fraction of patients were receiving cancer treatment at the time they stopped receiving medical services due to cost.
Still, any amount of necessary medical care not received by a cancer patient may entail unwanted consequences. It is a given fact, doctors say, that cancer patients have more medical concerns than the average person due to the nature of their disease — yet they are also among the U.S. population that understandably requires a higher level of care.
The results of this study indicate that the financial health of many cancer patients is suffering along with their physical health.
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