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The exorbitant cost of cancer care has most patients going into medical debt, even if they have health insurance High-deductible plans are part of the problem, but rising bills can exceed even the best health insurance Minority cancer patients tend to be hit harder by medical debt than white people FRIDAY, May 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- When cancer strikes, you could easily go into debt, even with health insurance in place, according to a new survey from the American Cancer Society. The , based on responses from nearly 1,300 cancer patients and survivors from March 18 through April 14, found that 47% had medical debt. Half of those respondents said that debt exceeded $5,000.
Two-thirds had struggled with debt for more than a year and a third had dealt with it for more than three years. Almost all -- 98% -- said they had health insurance when their debts began mounting. “While people are insured, sometimes they don’t have very good insurance,” head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, told .
He said many cancer patients with medical debt have high-deductible insurance plans in which a lot of expenses need to be paid for out-of-pocket before coverage kicks in. But cancer care can stretch even gold-plated insurance plans, Caplan added. “These cancer treatments can go on and on,” he said.
“They can also cost a lot of money for diagnostic testing, genetic testing, and pretty soon you say, ‘Well, I have a policy of a mill.
