A University of Illinois College of Medicine doctor in Peoria is leading research on reducing the “financial toxicity” of cancer treatment.
Dr. Carl Asche is the director for the Centers for Outcomes Research at UICOMP. He said out-of-pocket repercussions linked to cancer treatment include bankruptcy, drained retirement savings, conditions like depression, and skipped medications and therapies. Asche knows of these hardships first-hand from his wife’s cancer treatments.
“I realized just how bad this can be. I had parental leave, I had...I had everything. And even then, I felt it," said Asche, a health economist by training.
The financial bruising is linked to billions of dollars in out-of-pocket costs picked up by patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimated those costs at $3.9 billion in 2014.
Asche said the financial impacts of cancer treatment present a gap in the current medical literature.
Asche's research reports more than 40 percent of the 9.5 million American adults age 50 and over diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2012 drained their assets within two years. Thirty-eight percent were financially insolvent within four years. Bankruptcy rates among cancer survivors are 2.65 times higher than the national average.
“It affects all of us. Any of us who had cancer, survived cancer, or had family members or caregivers involved, understand this all too well," he said.
Bankruptcy rates among cancer survivors are more than twice the national average. He suggests reforms like a universal Medicare cap on cancer treatment costs, expanded employer support for cancer treatmentsregardless of the treatment setting like leave programs and rehabilitation support, limiting short-term healthcare plans not compliant with the Affordable Care Act, and transitions to clinical pathway payment programs.
He also said he believes Congress should create a task force on the financial toxicity linked to cancer treatment.
