Many cancer patients take multiple drugs as part of their treatment – often for many months or years. Some Patients Lack Access to Lower-cost Drug Alternatives Read more about Franklin, the costs of his cancer care, and policy solutions to keep costs. The Costs of Cancer report uses hypothetical scenarios of typical cancer patients like Franklin to show what patients pay and their challenges affording care. Learn more about their experiences at /survivor-views. The pandemic has also resulted in delayed or canceled appointments, which can allow a patient’s cancer to grow, leading to higher treatment costs and worse health outcomes.ĪCS CAN is surveying cancer patients to understand how the pandemic is affecting them and advocate on their behalf. Insurance disruptions aren’t the only cost of COVID-19 for cancer patients. By the end of the year, Franklin will have spent almost 3 times more on his health care than he would if he’d been able to stay on his employer’s plan. Starting a new plan cost him another $8,000 to pay his new deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. And this problem is disproportionately affecting people of color, who are losing their jobs at higher rates than white workers during the pandemic.įranklin, who has prostate cancer, already spent $3,000 on his cancer treatment when he lost his job in layoffs related to COVID-19. Mid-year coverage disruptions are costly because cancer patients like Franklin who have already met their deductible and maximums near the beginning of the year must pay another deductible and reach their new maximum out-of-pocket amount when they start their new insurance plan. economy caused by the pandemic has resulted in many Americans losing their jobs and their employer-provided health insurance. Insurance Disruptions & the Cost of COVID-19 Read more about Brian, the costs of his cancer care, and policy solutions to keep costs down.ĭownload a PDF of this infographic (Spanish) The Costs of Cancer report uses hypothetical scenarios of typical cancer patients like Brian to show what patients pay and their challenges affording care. ACS CAN also urges policymakers to consider prohibiting or limiting the availability of short-term limited duration and other non-ACA compliant plans, or requiring these plans to follow ACA rules. Maintaining the ACA’s critical patient protections and making sure these protections apply to as many people as possible is crucial to keeping costs affordable for cancer patients.ĪCS CAN strongly supports the continuation of the patient protections in the ACA and opposes any efforts to dismantle the legislation without replacing these protections. When he has a plan that does not include ACA protections, he pays almost 5 times as much. Short-term limited duration plans often attract enrollees with low premiums, but they don’t cover all the services patients need and come with annual limits on benefits or other unwelcomed surprises like excluding coverage for a cancer diagnosis as a ‘pre-existing condition.’ For patients with cancer, this can lead to astronomical costs and difficulty affording care.īrian has Stage II lymphoma. The risks of losing ACA protections are clear when you look at current plans that do not have to play by ACA rules. But the law is at risk of being dismantled. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has helped individuals with pre-existing conditions like cancer access comprehensive health insurance and afford their care. Some Insurance Plans Come with Higher Patient Costs Six infographics in English and Spanish provide a snapshot of key findings from the report. The Costs of Cancer 2020 report includes many graphics that illustrate the costs cancer patients face and why policymakers much find solutions.
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