NPR recently profiled a young widow who was left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt after her husband died of cancer. The woman, Fumiko Chino, is now a radiation oncologist at Duke University, studying the effects of financial strain on cancer patients.
Her research, published in August 2017 in JAMA Oncology, found that “some cancer patients, even with insurance, spend about a third of their household income on out-of-pocket health care costs outside of insurance premiums.”
Her husband, Andrew Ladd, was diagnosed in his 20s—while earning a doctorate in robotics at Rice University and shortly before they married—with aggressive endocrine cancer. Both Chino and Ladd had medical insurance, but he reached his prescription drug limit of $5,000 in less than a month and his total medical costs soon surpassed his policy’s $500,000 lifetime limit. They spent all their savings, moved in with her parents, and borrowed money. They even considered moving to Canada to get care.
After Ladd died, she, along with other medical professionals at Duke, began studying the toxic effects of financial strain from healthcare costs.
Their story unfolded before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; today, policies can’t carry annual and lifetime benefit limits. Even so, deductibles and co-pays are on the rise, leaving many with a bigger healthcare expenses.
Transparency in healthcare cost would go a long way toward helping patients price-shop for the most affordable care. Healthclx.com delivers that transparency, uncovering the hidden costs of healthcare and putting it online for consumers who already seek price information before making nearly every other purchase. Healthclx empowers patients to make smart decisions about their health and their money.
Source –
NPR: “Widowed Early, A Cancer Doctor Writes About The Harm Of Medical Debt“
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