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Medical Bills a Major Burden for Cancer Patients, Survey Finds
Although the Affordable Care Act has helped more people gain access to healthcare coverage, including those with pre-existing conditions such as cancer, the survey by the Cancer Support Community found that the cost of care is still too high for many cancer patients.
More than one-third (37.1%) of cancer patients are "seriously or very seriously" concerned about bankruptcy because of medical bills, according to a survey sponsored by the international nonprofit Cancer Support Community. And 47.7% of the 480 respondents reported they had paid more for healthcare during the previous 12 months.
The most common reasons cited for increased expenses were costs related to insurance premiums (61.2%), deductibles (46.7%), and treatment copays (45.8%). More than one-third of respondents reported that they were very concerned about the out-of-pocket costs for hospitalization, medications, lab tests, and scans. About half of the respondents (53.9%) were in treatment at the time of the survey. Of those not receiving treatment, 93.2% were in remission. The majority of respondents in remission reported that they still needed care, including physician follow-up visits (87.4%) and follow up tests (60.9%).
Link to the complete article on Medscape: http://bit.ly/1N4P5A1
"The Barriers Are Real": Antoine Keller, MD, on Geography and Cardiovascular Health
April 18th 2025Health care disparities are often driven by where patients live, explained Antoine Keller, MD, as he discussed the complex, systematic hurdles that influence the health of rural communities.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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