Mar 28, 2007 12:07 am US/Eastern
Living With Cancer Can Cost A Fortune
NEW YORK (CBS News) ―
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Cancer drugs are the fastest-rising cost associated with the disease.
CBS News
Joan Deignan counsels breast cancer patients at New York's St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. Deignan knows all about the cost of cancer, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports: She spent more than $50,000 in her own battle with the disease.
"All our money went to keeping me alive on breast cancer, even though I had insurance," Deignan says.
Her money went first to surgery, then chemotherapy and then drugs. It can cost a fortune to stay alive. Last year, patients spent $78 billion fighting cancer.
Drugs are the fastest-rising cost. Five years ago, cancer drugs accounted for just 13 percent of what we spent on medication. This year, that's expected to nearly double — to 22 percent.
The colorectal cancer drug Avastin, for example, costs $4,400 for a monthly dosage.
"Some patients really have to fall on a patchwork system of charity cases," says Jane Levy, who oversees financial assistance for the charity Cancer Care.
"And indeed, we know that care is delayed and that patients do suffer," Levy says.
Drug companies say research costs are what's driving up the prices, but Dr. Gina Villani of New York's Queens Cancer Center says ultimately, we'll all pay.
"What's going to happen is all of our premiums are going to rise. So it really does effect everyone, even those people who don't have cancer," Villani says.
But Deignan says her life savings was a small price to pay for saving her life.
"You want to get the cancer out of your body," she says. When it's life or death, you'll pay anything. "We all would," she says.
Doctors and hospitals are increasingly aware of the burden patients face, reports Mason, and many now have counselors who will try and work out payment schedules. Some hospitals also have financial-assistance programs to help patients manage their bills while they fight the cancer.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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