Treatment costs can leave cancer survivors facing heavy debt

Cancer claims many lives. Thankfully though, there are many individuals who win their battle against cancer and survive their encounter with this terrible class of disease. However, just because a cancer is beat doesn’t mean that it can’t leave its surviving victim with some rather impactful things.

One thing that many cancer survivors find themselves with after their battle with cancer is heavy medical debt.

Even with insurance, cancer treatments can be very expensive for a person. The costs can often exceed what a person can handle using just their household income; a recent study indicates that 65 percent of individuals who survived cancer found themselves in such a situation. This means that many cancer survivors end up taking on medical debt. Sometimes, this debt ends up being rather large. The above-mentioned study found that medical debt of $10,000 or more was something that nearly one-third of cancer survivors ended up with.

Another thing that cancer sometimes leaves its surviving victims with is an inability to work. Sometimes, a cancer survivor finds that their capacity to perform the tasks they would need to in order to work has been permanently impaired by the damage done by the cancer and/or the treatment for the cancer.

Not being able to earn income through work can put a cancer survivor in quite a financial quandary, particularly given that, as we mentioned above, such individuals can sometimes have quite a bit in debt payments they have to make. Thus, disabled cancer survivors may find themselves in a situation in which their financial struggles make it so they have difficulty meeting their everyday expenses.

Thus, sources of financial help can be incredibly important and valuable to disabled cancer survivors. One source that a disabled cancer survivor may be able to access are Social Security Disability benefits. It is important to note that these benefits have very specific eligibility requirements. Attorneys can help answer questions cancer survivors have about what these requirements are and what it takes to meet them.

Source: MarketWatch, “Despite insurance, 1 in 3 cancer survivors incur $10,000+ debt,” Catey Hill, Sept. 30, 2014