The Costs of Cancer Editorial

We need to better understand how financial burdens and employment concerns converge to create additional problems for cancer survivors as they reclaim their lives. National Cancer Survivors Day tradi-tionally is held in June, and we have much to celebrate. People are diagnosed with cancer earlier and are living longer than ever before. However, many costs are related with that progress. As oncology nurses, we are very aware of the physi-cal and emotional costs of cancer—we see it every day—but we don’t see some of the other costs that our patients and their families pay. We don’t see them at home reviewing their medical bills. We don’t see them return to work and try to resume their responsibilities. Two recent reports give us a glimpse into what that looks like. Most people have health insurance as a benefit of employment, but most of us likely don’t really know what would be covered if we were diagnosed with can-cer. You are probably under the assump-tion that your insurance would cover all of your cancer care costs. A recen