The multidimensional nature of the financial and economic burden of a cancer diagnosis on patients and their families: qualitative findings from a country with a mixed public–private healthcare system

‘The bills that were coming in…’: out of pocket costs during relocation for specialist treatment for haematological malignancies

“…The specific financial impact of such costs on the individual will depend on a variety of factors such as the health care system, work force participation, access to compensatory payments such as sick leave, and social welfare assistance [1]. In countries such as Australia, UK and Canada, the OOP medical costs are reduced by the publically funded healthcare systems that operate in those countries [1].…”

“…As explained by Holloway [12], the data collection and analysis for qualitative research are iterative and processual to ensure that the research is grounded in the perspectives of the participants. Qualitative research methods have been shown to be effective in research exploring the financial impact of cancer [1,4,5,13,14].…”

“…Although this is a newly emerging area of interest, there have been contributions from many different countries such as USA [3], Canada [2], Ireland [1] and Australia [4,5]. It is the sharing of this collective knowledge, documenting similarities and differences, which is beginning to define the way forward.…”

“…The available research is on the generic category of cancer or diagnostic categories such as breast cancer [7,8], prostate and lung cancer [1,2], brain tumour [9], colorectal cancer [10] and on paediatric conditions [11]. This paper responds to the call for more research to fully understand OOP costs for cancer patients [3], through a detailed discussion of such costs for adult haematology patients from Queensland, Australia, who have to relocate to the metropolitan hospital for specialist treatment.…”

“…As Timmons and associates [1] point out, although there is a deepening understanding that cancer can have an adverse financial impact on patients and their family, as yet, that burden is poorly understood. There are three ways in which the financial costs incurred by the patient as a result of cancer are met: through the public purse, through other collectives such private insurance, and by the individual patient and their family [2].…”