Health insurance doesn’t necessarily protect patients from medical debt: A survey from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network published Thursday found that almost all cancer patients burdened with debt also had insurance coverage. The findings underscore the exorbitant cost of cancer care in the United States. The results were based on survey responses taken from nearly 1,300 cancer patients and survivors from March 18 through April 14.
“That strain has been shown to be durable in their lifetime, impacting their choices, their ability to take jobs and of their choice to have a life that they would like.” Dr. Fumiko Chino, a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, is deeply familiar with the high cost of cancer care. In 2007, her husband, Andrew, died from a rare form of endocrine cancer.