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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
