Breast cancer is a hip pocket death sentence
BREAST cancer has become a financial death sentence for women.
A shocking new survey, provided exclusively to News Corp, shows women who use the private health system are facing out-of-pocket medical bills of up to $21,000.
Medical bills not covered by Medicare or health funds total over $3700 on average for women using private health insurance – 10 times as high as those who go public.
And women who have struggled with the financial shock are warning the 17,000 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year to think twice about using the private health system.
Women don’t realise they may not face a long wait for care at a public hospital, they say. A Breast Cancer Network Australia survey of 2000 women shows the out-ofpocket fees mount even before diagnosis.
Hefty fees of up to $1200 for diagnostic MRIs, mammograms and ultrasounds are not fully covered by Medicare and bulk billing rates are just 56 per cent.
Out-of-pocket fees for surgeons can exceed $6000 and private radiotherapy treatment is not covered.
Life-saving cancer medications such as palbociclib not funded by the PBS can cost over $5000 a month and plastic surgery to reconstruct their breasts can leave them up to $15,000-$20,000 out of pocket.
Oncotype DX tests to determine whether chemotherapy is needed to beat the cancer cost $5000 and there is no Medicare rebate.
But even women who use the public system don’t get their treatment for free, with the report showing they will face out-of-pocket bills totalling more than $3600.
Some public hospitals have been charging for chemo- therapy and other cancer-related medicines. A typical public cancer patient spends over $1100 a year on hospital parking fees. the report shows.
There are also monthly prescription fees of $38 for hormone replacement therapy and gap fees for specialist consultations of between $100$200 every three to six months.
Hidden costs of breast cancer total $3200 including childcare, counselling, accommodation and travel costs, higher energy bills to keep patients comfortable and new clothes for a new body shape.
The BCNA has a 14-point plan to solve the financial crisis facing women, including requiring health funds to make a $5000 trauma payment to help cover out-of-pocket costs.
“They are forced to rely on government benefits, charity handouts and emergency help from family and friends and the community to get by,” the BCNA says.
In the NT, the highest out of pocket expenses was $10,151 and the median cost was $6609.
Mother of two Sharyn Morcom was left thousands of dollars out of pocket when she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2009 and had a mastectomy. She says she decided to use her private health insurance to pay for her treatment but discovered it didn’t cover all the bills.
“I saw ladies going through the public system paying nothing, all their scans were free, all their doctors were free and they all had the same doctor as me and I paid and they didn’t.”
She was even more annoyed when she discovered women treated in the public system were getting extra services she couldn’t access.
“They were getting access to dietitians and psychologists for free and if I wanted to do it I had to pay a fortune and it wasn’t an option we could afford,” she said.