Patients diagnosed with major diseases, including cancer, often experience financial hardship due to high out-of-pocket medical costs in the United States. However, little is known about changes in income, wealth, and debt before and after major disease diagnoses.1
New data from American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers who presented at the 2024 ASCO Quality Care Symposium in San Francisco suggest that the debt related to cancer treatment may be prolonged.
In the study, ACS scientists identified families using the 2011-2021 Panel Study of Income Dynamics data and looked at a range of characteristics including age, sex, marital status, family size, number of dependent children living in the family, employment status, and baseline health conditions. Family income was assessed by the total income in the corresponding tax year, which consisted of combined taxable and transfer income of the response person, spouse/partner, and other family members.
Among families diagnosed with new diseases, cancer (6.6%), arthritis (17.5%), asthma (8.5%), high blood pressure (20.9%), diabetes (9%), heart-related diseases (24.7%), lung-related diseases (8.6%), and stroke (4.2%) were included in analyses.
Zheng and colleagues noted that the median family income was $67,498, with 29.9% of families reporting about $4500 worth of credit debt; 11.3% of families carrying a median of $4500 in student loans, and 10.7% of families having about $4000 in outstanding medical bills.
The researchers concluded that “Policies to prevent and alleviate medical debt as well as efforts to identify family changes in debt and income before and after major chronic diseases, including cancer, are warranted.”1
Reference
- Zheng Z, Hu X, Zhao J, Yabroff R. Income, wealth, and debt among families with a history of cancer. JCO Oncol Pract. 2024;20(suppl 10):Abstract 350. https://doi.org/10.1200/OP.2024.20.10_suppl.350