The financial impact of a cancer diagnosis continues to garner more media, reiterating what we at New Day have known for nearly two decades: increasing numbers of cancer patients are losing everything, and the resulting financial toxicity is deadly. But if we wait for the healthcare system to send a lifeboat for cancer patients in distress, we may have misplaced our hopes for rescue.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Cancer is Capsizing Americans’ Finances.” Research shows people are twice as likely to die of cancer if they have financial distress, and nearly one in three families are unable to meet their own basic needs while a child is in treatment.
Yet the issue is not only the high cost of treatment, but the consistent lack of understanding and action to address the problem within the healthcare system. Cancer related financial toxicity is not new; there are viable solutions to bridge the gap between expenses and income for cancer patients. Doctors, social workers and nurse navigators must first understand the critical need for patients to receive financial – and emotional – support during treatment, and then be able to readily access a pathway to that support.
A solution lies in supporting/building awareness of non-profit partnerships that can readily provide both financial and emotional support to cancer patients. Reaching families before they hit critical breaking points, whether financially, emotionally or both, is vital to improving cancer care and creating better treatment outcomes.
When financial toxicity destabilizes a family during cancer treatment, nonprofits like New Day Foundation for Families provide practical resources to give every family the same opportunity to reach remission. For the most vulnerable cancer patients and families, this means they have housing, reliable transportation, homes with heat, electricity, and running water, and healthy food on the table.
While hospital Foundations do exist to help patients with financial toxicity, they are seldom prepared to act quickly. While the paperwork is underway, homes are being foreclosed, medications are being cut in half and debt is growing. Meanwhile, nonprofits like New Day are working to lift the mounting financial stress from patients’ shoulders. It’s simply a matter of finding them – and funding them.
The financial impact of a cancer diagnosis continues to garner more media, reiterating what we at New Day have known for nearly two decades: increasing numbers of cancer patients are losing everything, and the resulting financial toxicity is deadly. But if we wait for the healthcare system to send a lifeboat for cancer patients in distress, we may have misplaced our hopes for rescue.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Cancer is Capsizing Americans’ Finances.” Research shows people are twice as likely to die of cancer if they have financial distress, and nearly one in three families are unable to meet their own basic needs while a child is in treatment.
Yet the issue is not only the high cost of treatment, but the consistent lack of understanding and action to address the problem within the healthcare system. Cancer related financial toxicity is not new; there are viable solutions to bridge the gap between expenses and income for cancer patients. Doctors, social workers and nurse navigators must first understand the critical need for patients to receive financial – and emotional – support during treatment, and then be able to readily access a pathway to that support.
A solution lies in supporting/building awareness of non-profit partnerships that can readily provide both financial and emotional support to cancer patients. Reaching families before they hit critical breaking points, whether financially, emotionally or both, is vital to improving cancer care and creating better treatment outcomes.
When financial toxicity destabilizes a family during cancer treatment, nonprofits like New Day Foundation for Families provide practical resources to give every family the same opportunity to reach remission. For the most vulnerable cancer patients and families, this means they have housing, reliable transportation, homes with heat, electricity, and running water, and healthy food on the table.
While hospital Foundations do exist to help patients with financial toxicity, they are seldom prepared to act quickly. While the paperwork is underway, homes are being foreclosed, medications are being cut in half and debt is growing. Meanwhile, nonprofits like New Day are working to lift the mounting financial stress from patients’ shoulders. It’s simply a matter of finding them – and funding them.