Medicare Costs For Cancer Care Skyrocket

Boston (dbTechno) - According to a new study, Medicare costs to treat cancer patients for five years now totals $21.1 billion. These costs are already very high, and are only going to get higher.

The new study was led by researchers Robin Yabroff of the U.S. National Cancer Insitute. The study looked at the cost of cancer for 718,907 cancer patients. These patients were then compared to 1,623,651 people whout cancer.

Researchers took data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) as well as other related Medicare files.

They compared the Medicare costs for people without cancer to those with cancer. With this information, they came up with an estimated cost of cancer care per person.

The costs depended greatly on the type of cancer. Per year on average, the cost of care for a person with breast cancer or melanoma was $20,000, compared to $40,000 for lymphoma, brain cancer, and others.

The costs were highest during the first year of cancer treatment, as well as during the last year of life.

Researchers have stressed that it is important for Medicare to look into ways to deal with the rising costs of cancer care.

As costs increase, so do co-payments, and other costs.

The study has been published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.