When someone in your family is diagnosed with cancer - and let’s hope it doesn’t happen - it will have a major impact on your life. Yes I have been there and have experienced the impact since my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, Stage IV as a non smoker.
Prior to her diagnosis neither of us had ever been hospitalized because of an illness. We were not prepared for such a dramatic impact upon our lives. Fortunately, we were in a position in our lives - I was semi-retired and she owned her own business - where we could turn our focus our attention on getting the best medical treatment available for my wife. Not everyone has that luxury and I am forever grateful that we were able to do so.
Cancer can be devastating to those who are diagnosed and their families. Beside the stress placed upon all associated family members, there is a major impact on their financial resources with several types of economic burdens as well as a major time commitment. Here are some of the impacts we faced.
Direct Costs - Includes expenditures for medical procedures, treatments, prescriptions and services associated with treatments. Even with good health insurance coverage, the patients responsible portion can be substantial. Many health insurance policies have coverage limitations such as max per day, chemo treatment limits and lifetime limits as well as prescription limits. With health costs spiraling upward, insurance company limitations are not keeping pace. Check your policies for limitations.
For example, my wife’ insurance coverage included a lifetime limitation for chemotherapy and radiation treatments of $100,000. With a single chemotherapy treatment approaching $20,000, five treatments is not sufficient in today’s world. One can quickly exhaust health insurance coverage in a very short time. My wife went through five different chemotherapy regimens and two series of radiation treatments. Fortunately, most drug companies have created charitable foundations which provide cancer patients with no cost chemotherapy drugs if your health insurance policy has reached its maximum reimbursement. It does take time to get the foundation’s approval and most cancer centers have a person who can assist with the paperwork that needs to be submitted.
Travel Costs - Your travel costs are dependent upon where you live relative to the treatment center location. In my case, we lived in the Dallas, TX area and travelled to Houston, TX for my wife’s treatments, approximately 300 miles each way. All of the out of pocket costs must be borne by the family of the patient. In one year we made 35 round trips to MD Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston. We always spent from two to four nights in a hotel. All meals were purchased out - often eating the food in our hotel room. Gas and parking fees as well as the hotel costs and meals are all oct of pocket expenses not covered by health insurance. These expenses are deductible from your income for federal tax purposes - big deal.
Loss of Income - Lastly, more often than not, the patient will not be able to work once diagnosed. With most families being supported on two incomes - there will be at least the loss of one income. Dependent upon the time and location of treatments, the second income could be lost or partially lost also. Unless your employer is sensitive to the situation, the time required to provide support for the patient can affect your employment situation.
Unfortunately, there is no way to plan for such a catatrosphic disease. Cancer shows up unexpectedly and there is no time for planning.
My advice to everyone is to obtain the best health insurance coverage possible. Good is not good enough. We did have health insurance. But I was not one to examine the policy details very carefully. And, $100,000 worth of coverage seemed like a lot. I had no idea of the health costs versus the coverage that was in the insurance policy. Today any limitation below $1,000,000 is not acceptable or sufficient.
