$817,000

[FarmerChick]

Staggering...

your one word summed up those costs.
so simple yet so true. how can one cope?

 

[pinkfox]

its terrible isnt it...

my friends step father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 3 years ago and is currently in the clear, $500,000 later, then about a year and a half after he was placed "remission" her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, by the time they realized it it had already spred into the abdominal cavity...she fighting tooth and nail, and is on her second round of treatment...thus far shes almost $800,000 in and no end in sight.

they are lucky to have good health insurance (shes a state employee) and still have their house because of it, but thats unlikely to last...there behind on pretty much everything at this point because since her hubby was diagnosed he also los this job and as of yet has been unable to find a new one...so while fighting cancer shes still having to work as much as possible just to cover everything and he takes every on the side job he can find.

its ridiculous.

i do thing theres SOMETHING in the house, seems strange that 2 people with no known cancer in their genetics, both get reporductive cancers within 2 years of eachother...their house if built on solid rock in an area once well know for the irradiating and chemicals, but hes also a carpenter and his workshop is vented through the central air system...im wondering if something hes using in his shop could have contrbuted...

cancer is horrible, i just hope breakthroughs in medical science continue fast enough, and she can hold on long enough that they can find a way to save her.

 

[OrganicKale]

It's just so sad- it's like adding insult to injury. Bad enough you have to battle for your life, you have to figure out how you are going to pay for it.

 

[pinkfox]

and the knowledge that if you dont win the fight the financial burden of going through it will fall on the ones you leave behind.
they dont just dismiss outstanding balances just cause you died, so no matter how hard you fought to hold on...theres always that guy on the other end waiting to ask you...or your family...to pay up!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Being a Canadian,Ontario specifically, all I can say is wow. I do realize that in a round about way we do end up paying for our health care, but....... if anyone here was to get breast cancer and got treated successfuly, it would cost them NOTHING. Yay Canucks.

 

[Leta]

It's just so sad- it's like adding insult to injury. Bad enough you have to battle for your life, you have to figure out how you are going to pay for it.

QFT.

Just what cancer patients need, money stress. Stuff like this makes me so frustrated, I just want to set the world on fire.

 

[Lady Henevere]

Those amounts are staggering. But if that's the bill to an insurance company, keep in mind that the amount is not what the treatment really cost and it's not what the insurance company really paid. Hospitals bill insurance companies massive amounts (you've heard of the $10 aspirin, right?) because they are making up for the people without health insurance or the people who never paid their bills. The insurance companies already have a deal with the hospitals that they won't pay the full amount, so the amount gets written down.

I'm really glad your friend is okay, and I hope she's not stuck with that massive bill. My SIL had a mastectomy/reconstruction surgery just last week; it's a scary disease.

 

[moolie]

Being a Canadian,Ontario specifically, all I can say is wow. I do realize that in a round about way we do end up paying for our health care, but....... if anyone here was to get breast cancer and got treated successfuly, it would cost them NOTHING. Yay Canucks.

Not strictly true, actually. My friend down the street has just come through months of treatment, and she had to self-inject something after each out-patient visit for her treatments. If she had actually been staying in the hospital, the injections would have been given by a nurse and be free. As an out-patient she had to pick up and pay for the prescription each time on her way home (not like she wasn't feeling ill enough to have a friend or her husband drive her to each treatment) but each injection cost thousands. She and her husband used up their entire retirement savings during the course of her treatment, and now that she's done she says they don't actually call you "cancer free" or even "in remission" anymore, she is "living with cancer" but well.

The Canadian system is good, but not perfect. And not completely free.

 

[CrimsonRose]

Those amounts are staggering. But if that's the bill to an insurance company, keep in mind that the amount is not what the treatment really cost and it's not what the insurance company really paid. Hospitals bill insurance companies massive amounts (you've heard of the $10 aspirin, right?) because they are making up for the people without health insurance or the people who never paid their bills. The insurance companies already have a deal with the hospitals that they won't pay the full amount, so the amount gets written down.

I'm really glad your friend is okay, and I hope she's not stuck with that massive bill. My SIL had a mastectomy/reconstruction surgery just last week; it's a scary disease.

I used to think most of that was true... but since we have been paying cash (no insurance) :/ It's outragious... it cost me over 3000 when my son broke his arm... mind you I DID NOT go to the ER we went to our regular doc to save money because the ER would have been closer to 5000... He broke it near the elbow... so they couldn't cast it.. we were in and out in about an hour... they gave him a cheapo sling (all they had in his size... I still had to drive over an hour away to a med supply store to get him a better one that didn't hurt him... cost us there about 30 for the really nice one) anyhow... a single doc visit... one set of xrays... and a cheap sling... one hour of the docs time... cost $3000... that's after our paying in cash discount!

On the cancer topic...

My dad passed last year in Oct from colon, stomach, and liver cancer... He never drank or did drugs ever... He was over weight and 3 years before he even got sick he went on the adkins diet... ate VERY low carb... it was the first diet he ever was able to lose weight on so he stayed on it... and despite all that he still got sick and died within a few months of being diagnosed...

I know diet plays a huge roll in maintaining health (hence why I work so hard to feed my family health... goodness knows it would be so much easier to just buy something premade from time to time...) but it's not a cure all... some things are just genetic or environmental and has NOTHING to do with diet at times...

Sorry to go off topic but I had to share that experience...

As for cost... After just a few months of doc visits surgery chemo and radiation... It was somewhere around 700- 800 thousand... My mom is still fighting with the insurance companies trying to get them to cover the bills... It's a mess... Our healthcare system is a joke at times (sorry to all the good docs and nurses out there I know you try!) but the whole insurance billing thing is out of control...

I am by no means well off... we would even qualify for state funded medical help If I would sign up... but I don't want too... but it's also not fare my bill is over inflated to cover so called costs of non payers when I have to scrape together enough to pay my bill like I should...

 

[lorieMN]

Being a Canadian,Ontario specifically, all I can say is wow. I do realize that in a round about way we do end up paying for our health care, but....... if anyone here was to get breast cancer and got treated successfuly, it would cost them NOTHING. Yay Canucks.

I have a friend in Alberta and she says the system sucks,,she says most times a person cannot get the help they need fast enough so by the time they do get treatment its to late..I dont know,thats just what she tells me.