Financial Support

Financial toxicity is a term used to describe problems a patient has related to paying for the cost of medical care. Not having health insurance or having a lot of costs for medical care not covered by health insurance can cause financial problems and may lead to debt and bankruptcy. Financial toxicity can also affect a patient’s quality of life and access to medical care. For example, a patient may not take a prescription medicine or may avoid going to the doctor to save money. Cancer patients are more likely to have financial toxicity than people without cancer. Also called economic burden, economic hardship, financial burden, financial distress, financial hardship, and financial stress.

The level of financial toxicity you may have will depend on several factors in your household that include increasing costs of cancer treatment as new treatments are made available, out-of-pocket costs that many insurance plans require people with cancer to pay, and decreased income for people with cancer, their families, and caregivers.

The resources listed provide financial assistance to families and cancer patients to assist with the financial burden experienced by a cancer diagnosis.