What Are the Costs of Cancer?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that the overall costs of cancer in 2008 were $201.5 billion: $77.4 billion for direct medical costs (total of all health expenditures) and $124.0 billion for indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity due to premature death). PLEASE NOTE: These numbers are not
comparable to those published in previous years because as of 2011, the NIH is calculating the estimates using a different data source: the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The MEPS estimates are based on more current, nationally representative data and are used extensively in scientific publications. As a result, direct and indirect costs will no longer be projected to the current year, and estimates of indirect morbidity costs have been discontinued.
Lack of health insurance and other barriers prevents many Americans from receiving optimal health care. According to the US Census Bureau, approximately 50 million Americans were uninsured in 2010; almost one-third of Hispanics (31%) and one in 10 children (17 years of age and younger) had no health insurance coverage. Uninsured patients and those from ethnic minorities are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a later stage, when treatment can be more extensive and more costly. source:Cancer Facts & Figures 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2013.