The Costs of Health Care for A Cancer Patient
What’s the Cost of getting your health back?
This series of posts will cover the costs of Health Care for an actual Cancer Patient: a friend will graciously allow us to follow their progress and bills.
This information is being shared, so that we may learn, benefit and maybe use this information to push harder for better and more affordable health care for all.
A patient with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. As far as the world knows there is no cure for this disease but Chemotherapy usually helps in extending periods of remission, but it is a long hard road. Alternative medicines include a Vaccine for certain types of Cancer that is in the works, but Clinical Trials have been halted for now for unknown reasons. Another alternative that is promising, very new, and in need of financing is Non-invasive RF Cancer Treatment invented by a John Kanzius a Cancer sufferer himself who wanted to come up with a better way of treating Cancer than with the toxic treatments like Chemo that are presently used.
I’ll run through the course of what has been done so far and then the costs. Now, it’s only been about a month since they found out that it was possible that Cancer was present. It was discovered through a routine Colonoscopy, something didn’t look right to the doctor, so more tests were ordered. A week, a CAT Scan and some blood tests later reveal some enlarged Lymph Nodes. So off to the Oncologist to test for Cancer… Another week, more blood tests, and a Pet Scan later reveal a more in-depth look at these Lymph Nodes, it’s definitely there, but don’t know what kind. That brings us to the Bone Marrow Biopsy, which doesn’t reveal any Cancer cells in the marrow (good news), but it doesn’t help determine what kind of Cancer it is. One more week, and a Lymph Node Biopsy later, “Eureka” we know what kind it is now. Now the Doctor can make an informed treatment recommendation: what else; Chemotherapy.
Now, for the Chemo a Port is needed to be implanted in your chest. This is because one of the Chemo drugs, is so corrosive that if it gets on any tissue it will kill it, so it has to go directly in the vein. Hard to believe this stuff goes into the body, to help. But this Port also makes it easier to administer any drugs or fluids they have to give you or draw blood during the treatment.
I will journal the experiences of my friend once a week, and keep track of the costs, so we can all see how Un-Affordable Health Care has become.
Note: The person has health insurance with one of the major companies. They have a $2000 dollar deductible, no co-insurance, $25 Doc/$45 Specialist co-pay, Prescription Coverage $15 generic/$45 Brand, 100% Labs covered, and a 2million dollar lifetime cap,and for all this they get the privilege of paying $369 a month that’s $4428 a year, and that’s before they found out about the cancer.
P.S. I probably don’t need to tell you this, but in this one month they have already met the deductible for this calendar year.
The Cost of Getting Your Health Back:
| Description | Billed | Ins. Pays | Ded | Co- Pay | Month | SubTotal | Total |
| Regular Checkup | 120.00 | 66.06 | 25.00 | 736.00 | 827.06 | 827.06 | |
| Appt w/ Specialist | 175.00 | 81.03 | 45.00 | 126.03 | 953.09 | ||
| Blodd Tests | 145.00 | 12.03 | 12.03 | 965.12 | |||
| Colonoscopy | 1080.00 | 0.00 | 505.63 | 505.63 | 1470.75 | ||
| Colonoscopy/Facility | 2157.32 | 0.00 | 377.10 | 377.10 | 1847.85 | ||
| Blood Tests | 403.31 | 61.75 | 61.75 | 1909.60 | |||
| Colonoscopy/Surg. | 197.50 | 93.37 | 93.37 | 2002.97 | |||
| Colo Anasthesia | 665.00 | 0.00 | 406.00 | 406.00 | 2408.97 | ||
| CAT Scan | 1932.00 | 0.00 | 504.89 | 504.89 | 2913.86 | ||
| Oncologist Visit | 346.00 | 251.19 | 251.19 | 3165.05 | |||
| Onc Visit/Facility | 202.00 | 135.34 | 135.34 | 3300.39 | |||
| PET Scan | 3300.00 | 2032.23 | 206.38 | 2238.61 | 5539.00 | ||
| Bone Marrow Biopsy | 297.00 | 272.94 | 272.94 | 5811.94 | |||
| Lab for Bone Marrow | 3422.00 | 1591.12 | 1591.12 | 7403.06 | |||
| Bone Marrow Facility | 931.00 | 618.10 | 618.10 | 8021.16 | |||
| Oncologist Visit | 125.00 | 100.94 | 100.94 | 8122.10 | |||
| Onc Visit/Facility | 146.00 | 97.82 | 97.82 | 8219.92 | |||
| Lymph Biopsy/Facility | 3827.29 | 964.08 | 736.00 | 1700.08 | 9920.00 | ||
| Lymph Biopsy/Doctor | 550.00 | 265.54 | 265.54 | 10185.54 | |||
| Ultrasound | 93.00 | 37.02 | 37.02 | 10222.56 | |||
| Lymph Pathology | 2375.00 | 593.79 | 593.79 | 10816.35 | |||
| Oncologist Visit | 176.00 | Pending | 0.00 | 10816.35 | |||
| Port Implant | Pending | 0.00 | 10816.35 | ||||
| Blood Tests | 118.00 | Pending | 0.00 | 10816.35 | |||
| Mugga Test (heart) | 552.00 | Pending | 0.00 | 10816.35 | |||
| Prescription/Prednisone | 8.78 | 3.21 | 11.99 | 10828.34 | |||
| Prescription/ Allopurinol | 12.59 | 12.59 | 10840.93 |
| Running Totals | 23335.42 | 7283.13 | 2000 | 85.80 | 1472.00 | 10840.93 |
Another great post about how un-affordable health care is: we-relax.com
cancer health insurance Non Hodgkins Lymphoma the cost of healthcare
on November 19th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
My Mom is going through cancer treatment right now and each chemo is $10K. She had gamma knife (brain) surgery and will have lung surgery soon. The total cost of her treatment will be close to $350K by the time she gets through.
Fortunately, she has insurance but I think of others who have to file bankruptcy because they don’t have insurance and use credit cards and other to pay for health care. It is disturbing to say the least.
Have you seen Sicko?
Thanks for the post and I pray your friend gets complete healing and that all of his needs are taken care of.
on November 19th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
You are right, it is very disturbing to think that besides having a debilitating disease, people end up using their life savings or getting in debt up to their necks, to pay for their health.
No I haven’t seen Sicko yet, but plan to. I am one that believes that health care is a right, not a privilege. If the government has to raise our taxes, so be it. Our taxes go for so much other bull, that we don’t even need. People’s health should be a priority, not a profit channel for some company.
Thank you for the words of encouragement for my friend. I lost my mom 3 years ago to Chemo related complications. Fortunately she was fully covered also, but some are not so lucky, and those are the ones we need to fight for.
My heart goes out to your mom, and my positive thoughts and prayers will be with her. I wish her and you the best of luck.
on November 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am
When a family member gets cancer, its emotional and financial costs can both be devastating. An insurance company that I had worked for, has a “cancer policy” which is a policy that helps to off set the costs associated with cancer…a great policy that all too often was and is declined when offered.
on November 20th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Thanks for your kind words about my Mom.
You need to go see Sicko and see it through all lenses. I found it fascinating, yet troubling.
Various corporations make a mint off the rising costs of health care. Indeed, a strong case of profit over people. Digusting.
on November 21st, 2007 at 2:33 am
unfortunately not only the heathcare system but also the tort system needs to be fixed. All the healthcare reform in the world won’t help unless the trial lawyers lobby can be beten back and meaningful tort reform can be enacted by Congress.
on November 21st, 2007 at 3:33 am
Health care is scary. It’s just awful. I may have sleep apnea, and I was just reviewing my plan (right before i found this post in my stumble alert!) and realized if I have a sleep test done that counts as a specialist visit and am hardly covered. I have a cheap plan through my employer, but I’m one of those people who goto the doctor once a year for strep throat.. I feel like its pointless to have it now that I know that when something serious does arrive (albeit, hardly as serious as cancer) I’m really not covered that well..
it’s all a gag.
on November 21st, 2007 at 2:02 pm
All good wishes to your friend, but an extra special thank-you to your friend for sharing the cost information. It’s surprising that it was discovered through a routine Colonoscopy and wonders why it is not so common a routine?
on November 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 am
Thanks to all for your comments,
I will keep updating the info weekly and keep the subject of Health Care in the forefront. Come back and share your insights.
on January 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
You are so correct, vasco. A very important part of reform is the tort system. Not just for health care, bit throughout society. Unfortunately most of our law makers are lawyers!
-Will