Economic Toll

Costs for leukemia treatment have always been high, but costs continue to increase in the United States, as well as other countries. In 2000, Finland claimed the mean treatment of all patients with this disease was $103,250 (2). Even in Chile the accumulated costs of leukemia treatment was almost $575,000 (1). 


Today, the prices have skyrocketed. One round of chemotherapy is approximately $150,000, and if bone marrow is needed, $250,000 (5). The likelihood of only needing a single round of chemotherapy is close to none. With every new leukemia patient, the nation loses a part of its workforce and the time and production as well. If that patient dies during their career, it costs the nation hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2006, the national expenditure was 4.5 billion dollars (7). In 2010 the number jumped to 5.44 billion, and projected future costs show that in 2020 it will cost the nation as much as 15.8 billion, not including the costs of lost production (4).


The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society claim to have a financial aid program, which is giving the patient’s family $100 a year to offset costs. With the rising numbers, or even the current numbers, this “aid” is unacceptable. Also, you can only have assistance if you’re within 500% of the poverty line. For a four person family, this means if you make more than $100,000 a year, you are no longer able to get assistance. Even if you can get assistance, they cap assistance at $5,000 (3). With this being less than 10% of the total cost of treatment, it’s no wonder many families are forced to move to lower-income housing and take out multiple loans in order to care for their loved ones.




Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)