Study reveals long-term financial impact of illness
A cancer diagnosis is devasting for so many reasons but while a short-term financial impact may take second place to getting well again, the long-term implications may not always be considered.
A new report from Angus Reid Institute, published today (Feb 4), reveals that many cancer patients are left with out-of-pocket expenses that eat into their retirement savings, potentially impacting their financial security long after they (hopefully) recover from their illness.
The report highlights how, despite Canada’s public health care system, 23% of Canadians that have been diagnosed with cancer faced substantial out-of-pocket expenses which made it hard for them to make ends meet.
Considering all out-of-pocket expenses for cancer treatment, 56% of those who have been diagnosed with cancer say they handled it “easily”, while the rest found some (24%) or a lot (13%) of financial difficulty, and 1% say they couldn’t handle it “at all”.
This includes challenges in paying non-mortgage debts (23%), everyday expenses (21%), rent (17%), or mortgage payments (13%).
Retirement savings were most heavily impacted, with 40% of respondents saying this was the part of their budget that suffered.
If they faced an additional $260 per month of expenses due to out-of-pocket costs from cancer treatment, 77% of working age Canadians who have not been diagnosed say it would be difficult for them to save for retirement in such a scenario and more than two-in-five of this group say the additional costs of cancer treatment would make covering rent (44%) or their mortgage (45%) difficult.
And it is not just those who need treatment for cancer that are impacted, with those close to someone with cancer also frequently requiring unpaid time off from work or even losing their job as they support their loved one. One-in-ten say they, or someone they know, lost their job while they were in treatment for cancer.
With stats showing that 45% of Canadians will get a cancer diagnosis at some time in their life – with nine in ten of those with close proximity to the disease aged 50 or above - the financial burdens this can cause is widespread.
The study found that most respondents believe government should alleviate out-of-pocket cancer expenses.
