FIGURE 2.
Flowchart of Economic Consequences of Cancer Treatment on the Patient and Patient Coping. After signs and symptoms of disease, the decision to seek medical treatment is influenced by an individual’s health insurance coverage. Patients with health care plans that require significant cost sharing face barriers in access to timely and comprehensive cancer care given the insufficient financial protection from medical expenditures. As the patient with cancer undergoes treatment, he or she faces an accumulation of direct medical and surgical costs concurrent with income constraints. Lifestyle-changing, and potentially maladaptive, coping mechanisms may be used with implications for quality-of-life and health outcomes. Adapted from: Carrera PM. The financial hazard of personalized medicine and supportive care. Paper presented at: Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) 2017 Annual Meeting; June 22–24, 2017; Washington, DC10; Keese M. Who feels constrained by high debt burdens? Subjective versus objective measures of household debt. J Econ Psych. 2012;33:125–14136; Jaspers L, Colpani V, Chaker L, et al The global impact of noncommunicable diseases on households and impoverishment: a systematic review. Eur J Epidemiol. 2015;30:163–188.37