Critical illnesses like cancer, heart attack or stroke are a huge burden not just emotionally and physically but also financially.
The cost of initial care, prescription drugs, and follow-up treatment can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
No matter your health insurance coverage, this burdens patients and caregivers.
What’s in this article
- How much does it cost to treat a critical illness?
- How much does it cost to treat cancer?
- How much does it cost to treat a heart attack?
- How much does it cost to treat a stroke?
- How much does it cost to treat Alzheimer’s disease?
- What are the other costs of a critical illness?
- How to prepare for a critical illness
How much does critical illness cost?
The cost of treating critical illness can place a huge financial burden on anyone, even those who have prepared as best they can.There’s a cost to not only treat the disease when it’s first diagnosed but to also continually treat it for months or years.
Don’t forget any medications, which doctors prescribe to relieve symptoms or to treat the condition.
If you’re diagnosed with a critical illness like cancer or have a stroke, there are several cost categories to be aware of.
Initial medical service/first year
Whether it’s an emergency or the start of a long-term care plan, you’ll face an initial cost to treat your illness.
For instance, if you have a heart attack, expect to be billed for multiple tests and scans along with any required surgery, medicine, and needed equipment.
Oral prescription medicine
Prescription drugs will likely be part of any treatment plan for a critical illness.
Continuing care
Critical illness can often require quite a bit of follow-up care. For some illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, regular care at home or in an assisted living or nursing home is needed.
Last year of life
The last year of life for someone with a critical illness can be the most expensive, requiring multiple interventions from your doctors.
How much does cancer care cost?
There are expected to be about 2 million new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2024.1Each case will start a treatment plan that involves testing and therapies like radiation or surgery.The final price tag to treat the disease can be enormous, so large that one study found more than 40% of patients used up their entire life savings to pay for cancer care within two years.2
In total, it’s estimated that the United States spends over $200 billion to treat the disease.3
The National Cancer Institute broke down the cost of care into three phases: initial care, continuing care, and last year of life.
It calculated that the annual cost to first treat any cancer is over $45,000 for medical services and oral prescription drugs.4
Continuing care then runs about $6,600 a year until a patient’s last year of life, when it amounts to approximately $114,000.5
The yearly averages differ depending on the type of cancer. For example, the initial cost to treat lung cancer comes to about $72,000 while it’s over $9,000 for melanoma.
| Average annualized per patient cost to treat cancer for medical services and oral prescription drugs based upon 2007-2013 cancer-attributable costs in 2020 US dollars | |||
| Cancer Site | Initial Care | Continuing Care | Last Year of Life |
| All Sites | $45,390.00 | $6,558.70 | $114,099.70 |
| Breast | $36,124.70 | $4,372.40 | $78,808.00 |
| Cervix Uteri | $58,715.60 | $3,956.00 | $97,546.90 |
| Kidney | $43,412.00 | $10,410.60 | $107,749.30 |
| Leukemia | $54,134.90 | $19,571.90 | $175,626.10 |
| Liver | $71,624.70 | $25,818.20 | $104,313.90 |
| Lung | $71,937.00 | $15,095.40 | $114,828.50 |
| Melanoma | $9,161.30 | $3,019.10 | $82,868.00 |
| Ovary | $80,161.40 | $14,262.50 | $112,954.60 |
| Prostate | $28,420.80 | $2,914.90 | $80,057.20 |
| Stomach | $82,555.80 | $9,577.70 | $123,781.60 |
Source: National Cancer Institute. “Financial Burden of Cancer Care.” https://progressreport.cancer.gov/after/economic_burden.
How much does a heart attack cost?
An estimated 805,000 heart attacks occur every year in the United States.6The cost to treat them runs into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Treating a heart attack patient consists of many things, including multiple exams, x-rays and tests, and possible surgery.
A 2022 study found that the average hospital cost for a heart attack was $22,034.7This amount represented the price of treating the patient from hospital admission through 90 days after he or she was discharged.
But your bill could be much higher as was the case for one Texas history teacher who received a bill for almost $109,000 following a heart attack.8
How much does a stroke cost?
An estimated 795,000 people have strokes each year in the United States.9The medical cost to treat strokes is expected to increase to $94.3 billion by 2035.10For individual patients, as is the case for heart attacks, the final bill to treat a stroke can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
A 2021 government study looking at inpatient hospital stays in 2018 found an average cost of $14,900 to treat a stroke.11Another one estimated the yearly cost to treat a stroke patient at $59,000.12
How much does Alzheimer’s disease cost?
There are 6.7 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease who are age 65 or older.13That number is expected to more than double by 2060 when it rises to 13.8 million.14There are another estimated 200,000 between 30 to 64 who have younger-onset Alzheimer’s.15What’s the cost to treat the millions who have this illness?
In 2023, it amounts to $345 billion and is expected to increase to $1 trillion in 2050.16
If you were to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the lifetime cost to care for you would come to $392,874 in 2022 dollars.17
This is broken down into two categories: direct and indirect costs of care.
Direct costs of care for Alzheimer’s disease would result from time spent at a nursing home or hospice.
Indirect costs of care relate to quality of life and caregiving from family.
What are the other costs of a critical illness?
Critical illness doesn’t only cost you material wealth. It also creates other losses in your life.For instance, being sick can mean you won’t be able to work and earn a living. This especially hurts self-employed entrepreneurs who work for themselves and don’t have the safety net provided by companies.
As for that well-deserved promotion? That may be on hold or gone until you’re back to being healthy.
Your quality of life may likely suffer if you’re diagnosed with a disease like cancer.
There’s also the unquantifiable amount of care (although experts have tabulated this to some extent) you’ll receive from friends and family.
For instance, caregivers provided an estimated $339.5 billion in care in 2022.18
All told, just remember that there’s more paid out to treat a disease beyond what you send your doctor or hospital.
How to prepare for a critical illness?
The numbers for critical illness are downright scary. But don’t worry. You can take steps to protect yourself and your family from an avalanche of bills.Save. Put money aside for a rainy day. Build that emergency fund so you have something to lean on (and use) when you need.
Insure yourself. Make sure you have some kind of health insurance in place. This will provide a backstop to your financial security. While you’ll still be on the hook for out-of-pocket payments, you have some reassurance of your insurance footing the majority of the bill.
Supplement yourself. Consider supplemental health plans to augment your major medical insurance. Options like critical illness or hospital indemnity plans could provide money to you should you get sick or be hospitalized.
