New report states cancer comes at a high physical and financial cost to Canadians

First at Five – Cancer Costs First at five we examine a new report that sheds light on how much patients pay out-of-pock for cancer-related costs.

Kayla Ouellette has been in remission for nearly a year now after ringing the infamous bell on Feb. 21 of this year.

The 28-year-old woman was diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a very rare from of thyroid cancer, back in 2022.

“It was a rough journey,” said Ouellette.

“I did radioactive iodine treatments and then I had to do six weeks of radiation.”

She did her treatment in Saint John, N.B., a nearly three-hour journey from her home, family and children.

She says she spent between $3,000 to 4,000 of her own money over that six-week period.

“The running back and forth from home to the hospital on Mondays and then coming home on Fridays to be with the kids and plus we were kind of like, kicked-out during the weekends so it wasn’t an option to stay, so that was a lot of running around from home to the hospital,” she said.

“Then once we got moved into the hotel, there was so much running back and forth from the hotel to the hospital between the radiation and then going there to make sure I could get meals and stuff with the coupons that the hospital gave me.”

On top of travel and gas costs, Ouellette says she’d occasionally treat herself to a McDonald’s milkshake, something cold to eat while her throat was sore and just too painful to swallow everyday food.

She also found herself on the hook for medication.

“The medication that I had to take because I couldn’t swallow anything, it was like some numbing medication, and that was over $100 and I had to pay for that out of pocket because I have no health coverage whatsoever for my meds. So, that was kind of a big slap in the face, while crap, I wasn’t told about this to save, but now I need it right now, what am I going to do,” she said.

According to a new study done by the Canadian Cancer Society, a financial burden is yet another side effect to a cancer diagnosis.

“The report reveals that cancer costs the average cancer patient in Canada about $33,000 in their lifetime,” said advocacy director Kelly Wilson Cull who called the number staggering.

Overall, she says the report, which is the first of its kind, looked into the impact that cancer has on the Canadian economy from two perspectives: the cost of cancer to the health-care system and to the individual cancer patient.

“We live in Canada and we have universal health-care coverage and so we know that many cancer patients are surprised to learn about the individual financial toll that this is going to take,” she said.

Adding, “We hear and we know that some people opt to even delay access to cancer treatment or forego elements of their cancer treatment, skip pills, etcetera because of the financial burden.”

Wilson Cull says the cost to individuals is really divided into three categories: time, loss of income and out of pocket costs like prescription, supplies, and food.

“There’s going to be people disproportionally impacted,” she adds.

“Those experiencing low income, those on fixed income, those who live in rural and remote communities are likely going to feel this disproportionally or have an increased cost associated with their treatment.”

The report states that people with cancer, and their caregivers shoulder 20 per cent of Canada’s total cancer costs, which amounts to $7.5 billion this year.

Officials say that number is expected to rise over the next decade to $8.8 billion per year.

“Being able to access cancer treatment is just so critically important to the outcomes that you want to experience following a cancer diagnosis, but we know that sometimes these decisions are impossible,” said Wilson Cull.

“So many Canadians are choosing to put food on their table or have gas money to travel to cancer treatments and those are really impossible decisions for individuals to make.”

Right now, the Canadian Cancer Society is calling on all levels of government to shift the dynamic.

Wilson Cull says they’d like to see provinces put work towards travel and accommodation programs, more programs that support out of pocket costs for things such as ostomy supplies, a way to better support caregivers and job protection in every province for people who have to step away for a leave for health reasons.

“Cancer is a disease that obviously impacts people dramatically from a physical perspective, from a mental perspective, from a psycho-social perspective. Adding that financial stress can really compact the stress and it really has an impact on how people experience their treatment and endure that treatment as well,” she said.

“It really does impact your outcomes in the end.”

As for Ouellette, someone who has experienced both treatment and the financial ties firsthand, she’d also like to see a change in the system to help those in a similar situation.

“If I didn’t have my boyfriend at the time, to be honest, we would have ended up homeless if I wouldn’t have moved and got his financial help,” she said.

The Canadian Cancer Society currently has a petition on their website to reduce the cost of cancer care in Canada.

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