Canada

While in-hospital costs such as surgery and chemotherapy are publicly covered, the report reveals the average cancer patient faces nearly $33,000 in costs over their lifetime. These include out-of-pocket expenses like prescribed medications, transportation to hospital and accommodation as well as lost income during treatment and recovery.

These are givens in the private healthcare industry. In the US these costs would run up past that level in a fraction of a year.

That said, I'm interested to know how universal healthcare would cover expenses like "lost income"? Sounds more like long-term disability insurance.

TL;DR: if you're an adult and live within transit distance of a hospital in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, or Montreal, the costs are probably manageable. For anyone else though, it's not.

Honestly, this sounds low.

My niece was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma at 8 years old. She lives in Peachland, roughly an hour from Kelowna, and about 5 hours from Vancouver. Her parents both work, and one had to either give up work altogether so my niece could be accompanied to Vancouver for weeks and months, while the other worked the few days they could in the Okanagan then drive down to the cost to be with their daughter while she was on chemo.

The costs were brutal. Transport was a big one, and since they both ran their own business, both companies cratered. They stayed at Ronald McDonald House for much of their time in Vancouver (thankfully) but they couldn't stay the whole time and had to pay Vancouver rents for the remainder of her treatment.

They have two kids, so the other needed regular care. This was handled by her retired grandmother, who moved to Vancouver and took a job so she could help out.

My niece survived and is now turning 12. She's just been diagnosed again though, so they're all back on the treadmill. Thankfully this time it was found a lot earlier, so the prognosis is a lot better. She may only need to be in Vancouver for a short time this time.

The article does link to the report from the Canadian Cancer Society. The report says that,

Over the lifetime of each person, an average of $11,199 in time costs, $16,018 in out-of-pocket costs and $5,560 in indirect costs are expected to be incurred by people with cancer and their caregivers. In total, and averaged across all cancer types, an individual is expected to incur $32,778 in costs related to cancer over their lifetime.

however the report doesn't break it down further, or explain exactly what makes up each of those categories, which is disappointing. As others pointed out, it would be nice to know things like:

• Out of those "out-of-pocket" costs, how much can be claimed as medical expenses on an income tax return (15% tax credit), and is that factored in to the calculation?

• How much is lost wages?

It's hard to consider ways of reducing these costs (Pharmacare, Welfare, refunds/tax credits for friends/family helping, etc) without knowing the details of these costs.