About three years ago, John Murphy, of Indian Head, Maryland, noticed a lump in his leg. He saw a doctor, took some medicine, and hoped it would go away.
It didn’t. So he saw another doctor, hoping to get it removed.
Instead, that doctor ran a biopsy, and Murphy was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer — classical Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL).
After he was treated, with chemotherapy taking a toll on him, the cancer was gone.
Earlier this year, Murphy noticed a new lump on his leg again and was told he was in for another battle with Stage 3 CHL again.
Having defeated it a second time, Murphy said he finally started working again last week.
“I used to have about $200,000 in the bank,” said Murphy. “I got $100 in my bank account, trying to push my house payment back.”
He hasn’t been able to pay for his pickup truck since the summer.
“Just spend all my savings, just to pay everything, keep afloat,” said Murphy, who is a truck driver.
He shared his story with WTOP during a break from his second cargo run since he started working again last week.
“If you’re not a strong person, I mean some people might want to commit suicide, not deal with it,” said Murphy.
“You’re fighting cancer for your life. Then you’re losing all your savings. You work hard to run a business. You’re losing all that,” he added. “And then you’ve got the house, you’ve got a mortgage, and you got everybody wanting to take your truck, foreclose on your house. It’s like I’m fighting for my life, but you’re losing your life at the same time.”
Murphy’s tale of financial hardship is one that tens of thousands of people around the country can relate to at this very minute.
A new study done by the American Cancer Society found that more than a third of all fundraisers posted on the crowd sourcing website GoFundMe are related to medical debt. More than 91,000 of those mentioned cancer in some way.
“No matter what kind of health insurance you have, what will happen is that people often experience really high out-of-pocket costs for their medical treatments,” said Dr. Zhiyuan “Jason” Zheng, a senior principal scientist and health economist with the American Cancer Society. “Because of the cancer and the long-term comorbidities after cancer and treatments, they often lose some of their productivities as well at work. So they also incur income losses as well.”
Murphy, who is 55 now, was one of those who posted on GoFundMe. He said he got about $500 from some close friends, but the experience also left him frustrated.
“I just like to do everything myself,” said Murphy. “But when you try to ask for help and you don’t get the help, that hurt.”
Zheng said younger cancer survivors are even more likely to struggle.
“They have a higher intensities of medical, financial hardships and the health-related social needs,” said Zheng, because they often have less insurance at that age.
“Medical reasons for personal bankruptcy is the top reason among all personal bankruptcies,” he added. “And previous research also showed that cancer patients who filed bankruptcy have higher mortality rates.”
Both the scientist who studied this and the trucker who lived through it say lawmakers can do more to help make sure beating cancer doesn’t kill you financially. Zheng said forgiving more medical debt would be helpful, as would eliminating some of the really high deductible insurance plans that require large, up front payments. Murphy said you should be able to pause your bills, like mortgage or car payments.
“It’s hard enough you’re dealing with cancer, fighting for your life, if you’re going to die or not, and then you’ve got to worry about the house and all that,” he said. “I just think everything should be put on hold until you they figure out what’s going on.”
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