Michele McCourt Discusses Impact of High Costs for Patients With Cancer

High costs in cancer care not only affects treatment outcomes for patients, but also their overall quality of life, explained Michele McCourt, senior director of the CancerCare Co-Payment Assistance Foundation.

Transcript

What is the impact of high costs on access to care for patients with cancer?

Patients with cancer, we actually do a survey. Patients with cancer, the high costs, it’s referred to as financial toxicity. It affects their overall quality of life in a negative way. It impacts their quality of life and they’re having to make tough choices. So, patients will either walk away from treatment, they will try and take their medications spread out over time so they aren’t taking their medications properly so they aren’t adhering to the way they are supposed to take their medication and it’s becoming ineffective. It really affects their quality of life.

The other thing is they might be taking because they don’t want to take the medication that really works best for them, they might choose a medication that has different treatment side effects. So, making those tough choices just to save as much money as they can, it negatively impacts their life.