My year of medical expenses
The end of the story first: I am a breast cancer survivor now. No additional treatment is necessary, and I am looking forward to completing my reconstruction surgery in October 2024.
Now the rest of the story.
As you may already know, I have been in the financial practice world since I was 22 and am now 63. I practice what I hope clients will do and I can see the results. I want this to be a read that gives you some thoughts and some reasons to do the same.
A breast cancer diagnosis can be so scary for so many reasons. So many questions like what treatment will I need and how will this disrupt my life and how will this affect my spouse are common responses. These emotional questions are followed by how will I be pay for all this and what will this cancer treatment really cost?
Many people with breast cancer cannot work during treatments or have limited medical leave. I needed more time to heal than I thought I would.
In the United States, healthcare and cancer treatment are not guaranteed. My Health Savings Account with a high deductible medical plan had a $7500 deductible before anything else was paid. Was I going to need radiation? Chemotherapy?
I do not have children at home to care for, but I needed help to perform daily tasks. I could not drive for many weeks, so I was lucky to have John help take me to doctor’s appointments.
I had to purchase specialty clothing for my recovery- clothing to hold the drains coming out of my body. In the first 6 weeks I had to purchase 4 specialty compression bras.
The numbers continue to grow with follow-up care. Cancer care does not necessarily end when your active treatment is done. I may have additional costs from oncologists, diagnostic tests, medications, physical therapy, acupuncture or alternative care and various other exams and tests.
The blog wwwsurvivingbreastcancer.org has great information. NPR did a great job reporting about breast cancer in 2022 https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/09/1110370391/cost-cancer-treatment-medical-debt and found that patients with cancer are 2.5 times more likely to declare bankruptcy than other adults with health care debt and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6057727/ 30% of cancer survivors report experiencing financial hardship
The cost of Cancer can be too much. A cancer diagnosis is already too much.
I was as prepared as I could be.