High out‑of‑pocket spending and financial hardship at the end of life among cancer survivors and their families

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most expensive medical conditions to treat worldwide, affecting national and local spending, as well as household budgets for patients and their families. In this commentary about a recent paper from Tur‑Sinai et al., we discuss the high out-of-pocket spending and medical and non-medical financial hardship faced by cancer patients and their families at the end-of-life in Israel. We provide recent information about the costs of health care in Israel and other high-income countries with (i.e., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Italy) and without universal health insurance coverage (i.e., United States, a country with high healthcare costs and uninsurance rate), and highlight the role of improving health insurance coverage and benefit design in reducing financial hardship among cancer patients and their families. Recognizing that financial hardship at the end of life affects both patients and their families, developing comprehensive programs and policies in Israel as well as in other countries is warranted.