In a study by the American Association for Cancer Research on Science of Health Care Disparities it was reported that nearly one million patients who had survived cancer were significantly neglecting medical care due to expense.
Most of these patients postpone their general medical and dental care or medical prescriptions, because they simply cannot afford it.
The Hispanic and African-American patients are those who suffer more from the consequences of high costs, as opposed to non-Hispanic whites.
Even though some of these patients do not have medical insurance, those who are covered cannot sustain all the extra charges, which are not reimbursed by their insurance.Those with health insurance can expect tax deduction help, various credits, and other tax-related implications that may alleviate some of the cost.
In the study it was determined that as opposed to non-Hispanic whites, African Americans were 87 percent more likely to neglect drug prescriptions and 57 percent would go without dental care, while more then twice the Hispanics would probably go without both.
This study concludes that more research is needed to understand the consequences of neglected medical care in patients who survived cancer and that doctors must be there to determine if or not their patients are receiving necessary medical attention and if not direct them to aid or low cost organizations.
