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Costs to Cancer Patients

Cancer patients in the U.S. are more likely to recover than those receiving care in government-run health systems.
  • The five-year survival rate for early diagnosed breast cancer patients in England is just 78 percent, compared to 98 percent in the U.S. 1
  • Between 1995 and 2001, approved cancer drugs took 468 days to reach patients in Europe versus 273 days in the U.S.
Cancer patients in government-run systems worry about their often life-threatening conditions for months before treatment becomes available.
  • Breakthrough Breast Cancer, a British non-profit group, reports that 55 percent of breast cancer screening counselors had patients who opted to have their breasts removed while waiting for their own screening results or that of an affected relative. Fifty-nine percent of the counselors had patients who decided to turn to private insurance because they had waited so long for results. 2
  • Breast cancer patients in Scotland waited an average of 80 days before being treated for a disease that is virtually incurable if it spreads. 3
  • A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that half of cancer patients wait more than 37 days for referral to surgery in Ontario’s regional cancer centers. The Canadian Society of Surgical Oncology recommends that patients receive surgery within two weeks. 4
  • Clive Davis, chairman of the British Medical Association, reports that National Health Services has asked doctors to postpone cancer surgeries so that wisdom teeth surgeries can be performed within waiting time targets. 5
Government-run health systems often deny patients the most effective cancer treatments on the grounds that they are not “cost-effective.”
  • Herceptin, a drug used to treat breast cancer that increases a woman’s chance of remission by 12 percent 6, underwent a 550-day approval process in Europe while the U.S. approved it in fewer than 120 days. 7 Even after the United Kingdom approved the drug for use, they still denied a woman access to the drug because she began treatment after the recommended time and it therefore “would not be of full benefit to her.” 8
  • Even after Scotland, Wales and Ulster approved the life-saving bone-marrow drug Velcade, England’s NICE continued to delay its approval claiming the need for further investigative trials. More than 3,000 British citizens die of multiple myeloma each year.9
  • NICE also rejected Avastin and Erbitux for treating bowel cancer on the grounds it was not cost-effective. Sixteen-thousand Brits die from bowel cancer each year. 10
  1. 1 “National Health Care Can Kill” by Michael Reagan, Ledger Independent (KY) (April 5, 2007)
  2. 2 “Charity warning over breast cancer delays” Telegraph (UK) (June 20, 2006)
  3. 3 “Revealed: the true scale of NHS cancer waiting times” By Eddie Barnes, Scotsman (UK) (June 25, 2007)
  4. 4 Marko Simunovic et al., “A Snapshot of Waiting Times for Cancer Surgery Provided by Surgeons Affiliated with Regional Cancer Centers in Ontario,” Canadian Medial Association Journal, 2001
  5. 5 “Anger at cancer case deferral bid” BBC News (UK) (May 25, 2007)
  6. 6 “Speed up cancer drug availability, critics urge” CBC News (Canada) (June 21, 2005)
  7. 7 “National Health Care Can Kill” by Michael Reagan, Ledger Independent (KY) (April 5, 2007)
  8. 8 “Cancer patient refused Herceptin” BBC News (UK) (August 24, 2006)
  9. 9 “Exclusive: Cancer Drug You Can’t Have if You’re English” By Andy Lines, Mirror (UK) (July 26, 2007)
  10. 10 “Row over new cancer drugs ‘too expensive’” By Mike Waites, Yorkshire Post (UK) (August 21, 2006)