Guthrie 1

Dylan Guthrie

Watson

099

23 October 2017

Survive but live in debt or die?

I have seen two of my aunts fight cancer and both of them won their battles, I have seen

two of my dogs fight cancer but they both lost their battles, finally, I have seen my father fight

for his life against cancer but he lost his battle. Cancer is a big part of society today but the

treatment they go through to survive isnt cheap. Cancer patients fight with every single ounce of

strength to survive but after they beat their battle, they get their bills and now are swimming in

mountains of debt. This essay will cover the topics of medical care, cancer patients paying out of

pocket, interviews from family members and cancer patients, and cancer treatments.

Lets start off by talking about cancer treatments and how much they cost. Theres lab

test that check your red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. This can range from one

simple blood test which is about $100 to several complex blood tests which can be up to $3000.

For a person who is uninsured it will generally cost them around $1,500. Medical insurance

usually pays for 80% of approved charges leaving you with the remaining 20% so a person with

insurance would pay around $300 dollars.

Now that isnt treating cancer, that is just diagnosing it. An article written by Physicians

now urgent care states the average hospital stay costs about $10,000. An average hospital stay

is about four and a half days. You would be paying $11,500 so far if you are uninsured and

$2,300 if you are insured. Now for people who need imaging testing like a CT or MRI. A CT

will cost around $1,565 and an MRI will cost around $2,048. You will get at least two of each to
 Guthrie 2

diagnose cancer and to show you beat it. If you are uninsured you are up to about $18,726 and if

you are insured you are about $3,745.20.

We arent even to treatment yet and the prices are already ridiculous. Roxanne Nelson

reported in her article The median cost for a course of radiation therapy per patient was

$8,600. Now prices change depending on the type of cancer that the patient has but to keep this

simple, I will use the median cost to show how much in debt cancer patients are after surviving.

After a course of radiation, which may or may not kill all the cancerous cells, an uninsured

person is looking at about $27,326 and a person with insurance will be looking at about

$5,465.20.

According to Matt Mauney average surgery cost of $39,891. That means that the

average person getting cancer cut out of them to try and prevent it from spreading and to kill it

off completely is around $40,000 dollars. Since insurance only covers 80% of that, someone with

insurance would still owe around $8,000. Yes, that is way lower than $40,000 but that is still a

lot of money to come up with. A person who is uninsured would owe about $67,326 after

everything so far including the diagnosis and treatments and a person with insurance would owe

$13,465.20. There is other treatments and costs too but my point is that the prices rack up

quickly and very few people can come up with that much money on the spot.

Which leads me into my next point. Most people wouldnt be able to afford that much so

they would have to take out a loan to do so. Now that they have successfully taken out a loan

then they will be paying on that loan for years and since its a loan it will grow interest. Which

will end up making you pay more than the original cost. This is what I am trying to prove, cancer

patients fight for their lives just to survive and after they finally beat cancer than they get billed.
 Guthrie 3

The cancer patients have to go throw these treatments to survive, its a literal life or death

situation.

Billing cancer patients after they survive is terrible. The prices of cancer treatment should

fall drastically. According to The American Cancer Society (ACS) more than 15 million

Americans living today have a cancer history. (ACS). You would think with that many people

having some type of cancer history that we would be able to lower the prices. More than 15

million people have a cancer history so obviously they all had to get it checked out or treated,

that means there have been millions of dollars spent on peoples lives. If that many people are

spending thousands of dollars each to save their lives then we should be able to lower the price

because there is so many people who use it that making money off of it wouldnt be hard.

The prices for cancer treatment are so high because medical professionals know that its

basically use the treatment they are offering, or you die. They are making money off of people

who had to fight day in and day out to just survive to see the next day, see their children grow

up, their family members get married and have kids of their own, for themselves to get married,

and just to experience life a little longer. According to ACS A lower premium insurance plan

may not actually save cancer patients money. (ACS). To break that down, people could be

paying this insurance to cover them and when they become high utilizers of care, the insurance

will drop the coverage because they became to high-cost.

A cancer patient could have been with an insurance for years, paying them to keep them

covered but when they get diagnosed with cancer, the insurance drops them. How is that right?

That person paid for them to cover them in times of need but when they actually need it the most,

the insurance says youre to high-cost and wont cover you? So basically, that insurance
 Guthrie 4

company just took your money and profited off of it but never helped you. Now that cancer

patient has to find a new company, or they will have to pay their whole treatment out of pocket.

After talking to my grandma, my fathers mother, about his cancer treatment and the

treatment costs. She was paying for my dads treatment with the money he saved up for

retirement. After my father passed away, the hospitals still wanted my grandma to pay his left

over bills. My dad was treated for lung cancer, he fought so hard to survive and he lost his battle

to cancer but the hospitals still wanted us to pay. Their treatments didnt work enough to keep

him alive or survive but we still owed thousands because of all the treatments he went through.

How is that fair? Families who lost their loved ones to cancer, now have to try and pay

the bill. Cancer is one of the lead killers out there, the treatment does save lives but only some.

This is a guaranteed treatment, your life isnt for sure safe when you agree to go through the

treatment. Its like experimental because cancer is different for everyone, treatment plans are

different for everyone so making it so expensive is ridiculous when it is experimental.

Having cancer and getting it treated is like a fire. Imagine you are the fire and wet wood

is the cancer. You need oxygen to keep the fire going and you need heat to dry the wood out to

continue the fire. Lets say oxygen is like cancer treatment and heat is your will to live. The more

oxygen the fire gets, the chances of the heat increases but if theres too much air then the fire

could be blown out. After the heat dries the wood then it continues to burn and live on.

Cancer patients need treatment to beat cancer but charging them so much is like blowing

them out. They have to use the treatment to survive. Its like when a natural disaster happens and

gas stations jack up their prices because they know people need their supplies. Thats illegal so

why is it fair to have cancer treatment prices jacked up so high when cancer patients need their

supplies to survive?
 Guthrie 5

Cancer treatment prices can scare cancer patients away from treatment they desperately

need. According to Samiha Khanna Having higher-than-expected out-of-pocket costs was

associated with high levels of financial stress and a decreased willingness to pay for cancer care,

researchers found. (Khanna). First off, cancer patients shouldnt have to stress about their

financial situation while fighting to survive. Next, they have a decreased willingness to pay for

the care they need because of the price, thats a big reason why we need to open our eyes and

lower cancer treatment!

Source from Atlanta- Cancers growing Burden: The high cost of care. Written by AP.

On February 26, 2012.

 Guthrie 6

The worst part about all of this is that more and more people are getting cancer and the

prices are rising. We should be working on lowering the price of cancer. There isnt a drug that

will cure cancer 100% of the time so we shouldnt be charging patients like the treatment theyre

getting will for sure safe their life. More people are getting diagnosed with cancer so the price

shouldnt rise because that will put more people in debt.

My father went through so much treatment and didnt survive. My dad had the biggest

will to live, He always said Dont worry, Im going to beat this. He had to work even when he

felt miserable to pay the bills from his treatment so he could keep fighting the cancer. He tried

everything and still didnt survive. The day the doctor came in and told my father Sometimes

cancer wins. The will and the fight left his body and I watched my father shut down. He didnt

talk very much after that or do really anything else until he passed away.

The reason that I told that story is to show that you can fight with absolutely everything

in you and still lose to cancer so charging people these high rates is criminal. These cancer

patients are doing everything to just survive so they can see their families the next day and the

medical professionals are just trying to make money.

In an interview, Demetri states cancer survival rates beyond 10 years lets say from

the time of a distant metastasis would occur less than 1 out of 10 patients, maybe 1 out of 20. So

its a very rare thing. (Demetri). He is saying that 1 out of 10 or 20 patients survive to beat

cancer. This treatment is obviously not even close to saving everyone but its one of the only

options cancer patients have.

This treatment is some cancer patients last hope. The price of the treatment can scare

people away though. According to Marlo Sollitto in his article Cancer Patients: Going broke to

stay alive. He says One in eight people with advanced cancer turned down recommended care
 Guthrie 7

because of the cost This shows that people are deciding to not get care for a disease that is

going to kill them without it just because it cost too much.

If the price was lowered then less people would turn down recommended care that could

save their life. Imagine the pain and struggles those patients and families are going through.

Imagine sitting in a hospital bed knowing youre going to pass away because you have to say no

to the treatment because you cant afford it. That is the scariest thought to think about. As

someone who lost a loved one, I know that if I couldve done more to save him, I wouldve. I

also know how hard it is to lose someone and I wouldnt want to wish that on anyone.

The thought of people turning the care they need down because it cost too much is

sickening. We need to lower the price of cancer treatment so people can afford it, focus on

fighting cancer, not having to be in thousands of dollars, to focus on friends and family, and

survive. This is a big issue because more and more people are dying from cancer and more and

more people arent going to be able to afford the rising costs of cancer.

Work cited
 Guthrie 8

ACS

https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/cancer-control/en/booklets-flyers/the-

health-care-la

Managing the costs of your cancer treatments, November 15 2015.

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/finding-and-paying-for-treatment/understanding-

financial-and-legal-matters/the-cost-of-cancer-trea

Types of cancer treatment, April 7th 2017.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types

Oncologists Worry About Rising Costs of Cancer Treatment, Lacie Glover, July 1, 2015

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2015/07/01/oncologists-

worry-about-rising-costs-of-cancer-treatment

How Much Does Cancer Cost? New Report Examines Expected Patient Costs for

Common Cancer Diagnoses, ACS, April 11,2017

https://www.acscan.org/releases/how-much-does-cancer-cost-new-report-examines-

expected-patient-costs-common-cancer

10 patients, 10 stories of outrageous hospital bills, 9 news

http://www.9news.com/news/investigations/medical-cost/patient-stories/438635946

ACS, The costs of cancer

https://www.acscan.org/sites/default/files/Costs%20of%20Cancer%20-%20Final%20We

b.pdf

11 Statistics on Average Hospital Costs Per Stay, December 12 2013

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/11-statistics-on-average-hospital-costs-

per-stay.html
 Guthrie 9

Large Cost Variations for Radiotherapy in Medicare Patients, Roxanne Nelson, August 13, 2015

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/849474

Matt Mauney
https://www.asbestos.com/treatment/expenses/

Interview: Dr. George Demetri

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/cancer/interviews-demetri.html

Atlanta - Cancer's Growing Burden: The High Cost Of Care, February 26, 2012

https://www.vosizneias.com/101692/2012/02/26/atlanta-cancers-growing-burden-the-high-cost-

of-care/

Cancer Patients: Going Broke to Stay Alive, Marlo Sollitto

https://www.agingcare.com/articles/why-cancer-patients-cannot-afford-treatment-139136.htm