The financial costs of cancer are great for both the person with cancer and for society as a whole. In the year 2008, the National Institutes of Health estimated overall annual costs of cancer in 2007 were as follows:

Total Cost: $219.2 billion

Direct Medical Costs: $ 89.0 billion (total of all health expenditures)

Indirect Morbidity Costs: $ 18.2 billion (cost of lost productivity due to illness)

Indirect Mortality Costs: $112.0 billion (cost of lost productivity due to premature death)

One of the major costs of cancer is cancer treatment. But lack of health insurance and other barriers to health care prevent many Americans from even getting good, basic health care.

According to the early release estimates from the 2006 National Health Interview Survey:

• About 24% of Americans aged 18 to 64 had no health insurance for at least part of the past year.

• About 13% of children in the U.S. had no health insurance for at least part of the past year.

According to Cancer Facts & Figures 2008:

• 1 in 5 people with health insurance who are diagnosed with cancer use all or most of their savings because of the financial cost of dealing with cancer..

• Cancer patients who have no insurance or not enough health insurance have higher medical costs, poorer outcomes, and higher rates of death.

In 2008, the American Cancer Society and its sister advocacy organization, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network^SM, are working together to bring the need for meaningful health care reform to the forefront of public and political debate. One key goal is to make Americans aware of the extent of the access to health care problem and to motivate them to take action in support of change.

Cancer costs. Reducing barriers to cancer care is critical in the fight to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer.

References

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2008. Atlanta, Ga. 2008. Available at http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/2008CAFFfinalsecured.pdf. Accessed March 18, 2008.

Revised: 04/07/08