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Transcript

The Cost Of Cancer · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it. She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money. Hello and welcomed. She's on the
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Speaker 3: Money the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Today's
1:04
Speaker 3: episode is the third in a series of conversations we're
1:06
Speaker 3: having that look at the true costs of health care
1:09
Speaker 3: in Australia. You started a few weeks back looking at
1:12
Speaker 3: the cost of care for some of the most common
1:14
Speaker 3: illnesses and conditions with Rhiann and Tracy, and two weeks
1:18
Speaker 3: ago we looked at the cost of mental health care.
1:20
Speaker 3: So welcome to our third episode where we are looking
1:23
Speaker 3: at the cost of another very common illness, cancer. Unfortunately,
1:29
Speaker 3: Victoria Divine is with us, h I V.
1:31
Speaker 2: Unfortunately Victoria is with us or unfortunately this is the top.
1:35
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what you're it's very seriously, it is
1:38
Speaker 2: the tone of your voice. We're saying that it was
1:40
Speaker 2: unfortunate that I'm joining you today.
1:42
Speaker 3: I meant that mostly, but no, it is very unfortunate
1:45
Speaker 3: that it is quite a common illness, cancer that we
1:47
Speaker 3: are talking about today.
1:49
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. And I actually really wanted to
1:51
Speaker 2: do this series because I really wanted our community to
1:54
Speaker 2: avoid any nasty surprises when it comes to the financial
1:57
Speaker 2: impact of unexpected health problems. I feel like it something
2:00
Speaker 2: that we just don't talk enough about, and I mean
2:04
Speaker 2: as Australians with a lucky country, right like, I think
2:07
Speaker 2: everybody just seems to have this mentality of it'll never
2:11
Speaker 2: happen to me, and unfortunately that's not the case. So
2:16
Speaker 2: it's something I have seen unfortunately far too often. I
2:19
Speaker 2: think because I worked so deeply in the financial advice space,
2:24
Speaker 2: you I guess have the privilege of working with clients
2:27
Speaker 2: and establishing their insurances, but you also have I won't
2:31
Speaker 2: call it a burden because it's honestly you feel so
2:36
Speaker 2: at the time, you're so upset for the family, but
2:38
Speaker 2: you're also just so grateful that you can be there
2:40
Speaker 2: for them and actually provide support and actually instigate something
2:43
Speaker 2: that's going to put them in a significantly better position.
2:47
Speaker 2: But you just see it so much more often than
2:50
Speaker 2: you think you would. And we're having these conversations, right
2:53
Speaker 2: because obviously I'm obsessed with insurance, but I also think
2:57
Speaker 2: the best type of insurance is the one you never
2:59
Speaker 2: have to claim on, because that means that you're perfectly healthy,
3:02
Speaker 2: Beck and you never needed it. Like I've said it
3:04
Speaker 2: so many times, I want your insurance to be a
3:07
Speaker 2: waste of money. Yeah, I want you to look back
3:09
Speaker 2: on it in fifty years and be like, oh my gosh,
3:12
Speaker 2: I absolutely put all of those premiums that I was
3:15
Speaker 2: paying straight in the trash. It was like shredding money.
3:18
Speaker 2: I would love for you to say that, because that
3:21
Speaker 2: means in the fifty years that you had that premium enforced,
3:24
Speaker 2: you didn't have to claim on it. Nobody can predict
3:27
Speaker 2: that though, right, Like if we could predict that, one,
3:29
Speaker 2: I'd be real rich. But also two, I just think
3:32
Speaker 2: it's one of those things that you can't predict it. Yes,
3:34
Speaker 2: genetics comes into it, but obviously, so much of the
3:38
Speaker 2: cancer world is unforeseen. Ongoing advancements in the diagnosis and
3:43
Speaker 2: treatment of disease have seen our lifetime expectancy increase in
3:47
Speaker 2: increasing increase. Beck Like it is wild. Like they now
3:51
Speaker 2: say that there is somebody walking this earth. They're probably
3:55
Speaker 2: really young today because it's definitely not your eye with
3:58
Speaker 2: the way we've lived our life. But there is somebody
4:01
Speaker 2: walking the earth today that is going to live to
4:03
Speaker 2: the age of one hundred and fifty.
4:05
Speaker 4: Isn't that crazy?
4:06
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's crazy about our life expectancy has
4:09
Speaker 2: gone up and up, and I mean that's not the
4:10
Speaker 2: average when we talk about one fifty, but like that's
4:13
Speaker 2: going to happen at some point in someone on this
4:16
Speaker 2: planet's lifetime, isn't While.
4:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, would you actually want to be around that long?
4:20
Speaker 3: I feel like it's going to get boring.
4:23
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it's it's funny because we
4:25
Speaker 2: used to have this debate. I used to have a
4:27
Speaker 2: group of friends and we'll just be very existential about
4:29
Speaker 2: our lives, and I just I don't think I want
4:31
Speaker 2: to live forever, Like unless absolutely everybody was living a
4:36
Speaker 2: lot longer. I don't know. I remember having this conversation
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Speaker 2: with my grandpa who got to ninety four, and I
4:42
Speaker 2: was quite young when he passed away, but I was like,
4:45
Speaker 2: you're so old, like obviously had absolutely no common sense
4:48
Speaker 2: at that point to not be rude to my elders,
4:51
Speaker 2: but I'm so old.
4:53
Speaker 4: And he said, yeah, but you know.
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Speaker 2: I'm I'm old and my time will come soon kind
4:57
Speaker 2: of vibe and I can't remember word for word war
5:00
Speaker 2: it was, but he said, I never thought that being
5:02
Speaker 2: old would be this lonely because every single person around
5:06
Speaker 2: him had passed away, like my grandma had passed away
5:09
Speaker 2: a few years before, and all of his friends, Like
5:11
Speaker 2: all he did was go to his friend's funerals, like
5:14
Speaker 2: they became the outings that he was going to. And
5:18
Speaker 2: ninety four is a really good innings, Like it's so epic,
5:22
Speaker 2: but it's so upsetting to think that alongside getting that old,
5:26
Speaker 2: you go through so much sadness as well. And I
5:28
Speaker 2: just I don't think I want that. No, I don't
5:30
Speaker 2: want to consistently see the people around me leave.
5:33
Speaker 3: I know that's actually that's actually very devastating.
5:36
Speaker 2: So moving back to the topic, Beck We're seeing more
5:39
Speaker 2: and more people live with cancer rather than pass away
5:42
Speaker 2: from it and serious health conditions, and the cost of
5:45
Speaker 2: burden on our health care system has been growing. So
5:47
Speaker 2: we actually really need to know what this means for
5:49
Speaker 2: us and our loved ones, because as technology improves, it
5:54
Speaker 2: means that more tax payer dollars are going to healthcare,
5:58
Speaker 2: which is honestly, from my if, an absolute privilege to fund.
6:02
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's not endless. Yeah, like
6:05
Speaker 2: it comes to a cap, things have to be allocated.
6:08
Speaker 2: We have to have these conversations about what is fair,
6:11
Speaker 2: how do we protect ourselves even when it comes and
6:13
Speaker 2: I mean this is a completely separate side topic, but
6:16
Speaker 2: even when it comes to the pension, like how many
6:18
Speaker 2: people can be on the pension before they can't afford
6:20
Speaker 2: to give the pension anymore? And with our rising population
6:23
Speaker 2: and the increase in life expectancy, like, how are we
6:27
Speaker 2: actually planning for this as a country if people aren't
6:30
Speaker 2: in a position, especially right now we're in the middle
6:33
Speaker 2: of a cost of living crisispect like how many of
6:36
Speaker 2: us are actually investing for our future? What does that
6:38
Speaker 2: look like? Like it's not just scary on an individual level,
6:41
Speaker 2: it's scary on a holistic community level because what's gonna happen?
6:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is so scary. I would recommend anyone listening
6:49
Speaker 3: to this. If you haven't listened to the last two
6:51
Speaker 3: episodes in this series, please do go back and listen.
6:54
Speaker 3: They are really interesting. But I don't think you have
6:56
Speaker 3: to listen to them in any specific order.
6:57
Speaker 2: Just is not who just isn't really talking about specific
7:00
Speaker 2: topics in this series, but they don't link together.
7:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So the I guess, could you take us
7:06
Speaker 3: through what is a snapshot of the prevalence of cancer
7:09
Speaker 3: in Australia. So we have gone back to the research
7:12
Speaker 3: in the ZERI Cost of Care Report, and as I've
7:15
Speaker 3: said before, I really love the data in this report.
7:19
Speaker 3: Cancer beck represents nineteen percent of the disease burden here
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Speaker 3: in Australia and it's one of the most financially impactful.
7:26
Speaker 3: One in three Australian men and one in four Australian
7:29
Speaker 3: women will be diagnosed with some type of cancer before
7:33
Speaker 3: they turn seventy five. Wow, that's a lot.
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Speaker 2: Prostate cancer is the most prevalent, followed by breast cancer,
7:40
Speaker 2: bowel cancer and melanoma. Australia has the second highest prevalence
7:44
Speaker 2: of melanoma in the entire world.
7:47
Speaker 5: Wow.
7:49
Speaker 2: Five year survival rates range from sixteen percent flood cancer
7:53
Speaker 2: to ninety five percent for prostate cancer.
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Speaker 3: Oh well, ninety survival rate for prostate cancer is actually
8:00
Speaker 3: not bad. It's actually epic.
8:02
Speaker 2: And I'm pretty sure the data, which is not in
8:04
Speaker 2: front of me at the moment, has said that over
8:07
Speaker 2: the last twenty five years that has increased significantly because
8:11
Speaker 2: people are more likely to go to their gps to
8:13
Speaker 2: get niggles and things checked. And I mean lots of
8:15
Speaker 2: people have prostates, but particular I mean the stereotype of
8:19
Speaker 2: men not wanting to go to the GP would play
8:21
Speaker 2: into this, and I think that's being broken down and
8:24
Speaker 2: more people are more comfortable to seek medical advice when
8:27
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, this just doesn't seem right. If it
8:30
Speaker 2: doesn't seem right, just get checked, yeap, Just go and
8:32
Speaker 2: have a chat with your GP, like my GP, and
8:34
Speaker 2: I hey, Greg, BFF, like I check everything. And I
8:39
Speaker 2: don't even think I'm being a hypochondriac in this circumstance.
8:42
Speaker 2: I think I'm just you know, Okay, well, I'll just
8:44
Speaker 2: pop that on my list of things that next time.
8:46
Speaker 2: At the GP I want to check, and I go, oh,
8:48
Speaker 2: if I haven't been to the GP in a while, Like,
8:50
Speaker 2: I think about whether I need it, and if there
8:52
Speaker 2: was anything on my list of things I need to
8:53
Speaker 2: get checked. I'm not someone who every week is like,
8:56
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I need to go to the doctor.
8:58
Speaker 2: But I think it's just so important to be on
9:01
Speaker 2: top of your own health because that plays into so
9:04
Speaker 2: many different areas of your life. And as we have
9:06
Speaker 2: been talking about over the last couple of weeks, your
9:09
Speaker 2: health is directly linked to your ability to produce an income. Yeah,
9:14
Speaker 2: so financially it makes sense to look after your health.
9:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes so much sense.
9:17
Speaker 2: So if you're not caring about yourself in the way
9:19
Speaker 2: that you should, one, you should. But two, there's money
9:22
Speaker 2: at stake, so let's let's look at that side.
9:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. If nothing else will motivate you, money certainly
9:27
Speaker 3: will and hopefully should literally. And they also say prevention
9:31
Speaker 3: is the best cure.
9:32
Speaker 1: Two.
9:33
Speaker 2: True, you know that's not for every case. But they
9:36
Speaker 2: also say an apple a day keeps the doctor. I
9:38
Speaker 2: don't I know what that you confess?
9:41
Speaker 4: Where's that come from?
9:42
Speaker 3: I mean, I think if that was the only thing
9:45
Speaker 3: we had to do, I would be eating apples all
9:48
Speaker 3: the time.
9:49
Speaker 2: This podcast in the business category, though not the medical category.
9:53
Speaker 4: So take what you wish the eversation.
9:56
Speaker 3: You can start eating apple a day if few weeks
9:59
Speaker 3: is really good. They're very good.
10:01
Speaker 4: They're so very good. Have you had a jazz apple before?
10:04
Speaker 3: Oh I'm not a jazz fan. Yeah? Grannie Smith or
10:08
Speaker 3: pink lady who eats Grannie Smith apples?
10:12
Speaker 2: All right?
10:12
Speaker 4: Back onto the topic, because you're.
10:14
Speaker 3: Rogue and wrong. It seems just judging by everyone very wrong.
10:20
Speaker 4: What the hecking?
10:21
Speaker 1: Now?
10:22
Speaker 3: Back on topic. Although healthcare in Australia is largely publicly funded,
10:26
Speaker 3: out of pocket costs associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment
10:29
Speaker 3: and survival can place a huge burden on sufferers in
10:32
Speaker 3: their families. So V what sort of things are people
10:36
Speaker 3: having to pay for? Lots of things?
10:37
Speaker 2: Right? So GPS and specialist gap payments GPS. We have
10:42
Speaker 2: been having these conversations consistently in our community about how
10:46
Speaker 2: lots of GPS aren't offering bulk billing anymore. So I
10:49
Speaker 2: feel like this cost is just going to increase over time.
10:53
Speaker 2: Scans or tests outside the public system, over the counter
10:56
Speaker 2: medications for pain relief and other purposes like pain and
11:00
Speaker 2: you are consistently trotting down to chemist warehouse to get
11:03
Speaker 2: your advil Like that adds up. Those things add up,
11:06
Speaker 2: complementary medicines or therapies, medical devices, treatment related travel and accommodation.
11:13
Speaker 2: Just because you're going through a circumstance that is traumatic
11:16
Speaker 2: does not mean you have access to close care. And
11:21
Speaker 2: sometimes the best care is actually in a different state.
11:24
Speaker 2: Like I grew up in Tasmania and the Tasmanian healthcare
11:27
Speaker 2: system is beautiful. Please don't get me wrong about that.
11:30
Speaker 2: But the amount of family members that I have had
11:33
Speaker 2: that have had to fly to different states to get
11:35
Speaker 2: medical procedures done, necessary medical procedures we're not talking about,
11:39
Speaker 2: like elective surgeries, is wild. Like it blows my mind
11:43
Speaker 2: that sometimes you actually have to leave the state to
11:46
Speaker 2: get the best care in a particular area. I'm not
11:48
Speaker 2: saying anything bad about the healthcare system in Tasi.
11:51
Speaker 4: It is great.
11:52
Speaker 2: As long as you haven't watched maths and haven't got
11:55
Speaker 2: an idea of what the nurses are. I can promise
11:57
Speaker 2: the nurses in my family in Tasmania. Elate, you're talking
12:01
Speaker 2: about yet wild?
12:03
Speaker 3: I was kind of a fan.
12:04
Speaker 4: What do you mean you were kind of a fan.
12:06
Speaker 3: I don't know something about it.
12:08
Speaker 4: You just like the drama.
12:09
Speaker 3: I like the drama, and you know she's not hard
12:11
Speaker 3: on the eye. I'm not gonna go.
12:13
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, no worries.
12:17
Speaker 3: If you're listening to this, I love you so much,
12:20
Speaker 3: all right.
12:21
Speaker 4: Okay, moving on.
12:23
Speaker 2: There's also things like personal care, right, like if you
12:25
Speaker 2: need to manage stuff like ULCs that you get during radiotherapy,
12:30
Speaker 2: Like you're going to be buying things that help you
12:33
Speaker 2: with that. Things add up. But it's also you know,
12:37
Speaker 2: not I don't know. I just I feel like those
12:39
Speaker 2: are the things that you and I can quantify. What
12:41
Speaker 2: about the time off work? What about the cost of
12:44
Speaker 2: the carers that are looking after you to take and
12:47
Speaker 2: you'll leave days. What about the impact to you progressing
12:50
Speaker 2: in your career. You're not going to be focusing on
12:53
Speaker 2: progressing in your career if there's something more serious going on,
12:56
Speaker 2: and that makes absolute sense. But at the end of
12:58
Speaker 2: the day, that is a setback. Yeah, and we need
13:00
Speaker 2: to talk about that. So there's just lots that go
13:03
Speaker 2: into it.
13:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. Now I wanted to ask, and it's probably
13:07
Speaker 3: going to be really depressing answer. But it will be
13:09
Speaker 3: what are some of the average lifetime costs for people
13:12
Speaker 3: with different types of cancers.
13:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, so before we go through this, obviously this is
13:16
Speaker 2: the recorded stuff from this report, and after our beautiful
13:20
Speaker 2: conversation with my friend Rann and Tracy who talked about
13:23
Speaker 2: her experience, we know it's much more than this. So
13:27
Speaker 2: she is a quadriplegic, and she said it's in the
13:30
Speaker 2: eleven million dollar disability and she reckons it's worth more
13:34
Speaker 2: than that. Like, that's just the bare minimum. So keep
13:36
Speaker 2: that in mind while they go through these numbers. Okay,
13:39
Speaker 2: So the average lifetime cost for prostate cancer is thirty
13:42
Speaker 2: six eight hundred dollars, Breast cancer is thirty six thousand
13:47
Speaker 2: and forty dollars, Our cancer is fifty one thousand, four
13:51
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty dollars, melanoma, skin cancer is twenty thousand,
13:57
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty dollars. Lung cancer is seventy four thousand,
14:02
Speaker 2: six hundred dollars. Non Hodgkins lymphoma, she's getting pricey eighty
14:09
Speaker 2: seven thousand, five hundred dollars years. Head, neck and thyroid
14:13
Speaker 2: cancers ninety five thousand, four hundred and sixty dollars, Kidney
14:18
Speaker 2: cancer sixty three thousand, two hundred and twenty dollars, and
14:22
Speaker 2: uterine cancer is forty six thousand and thirty dollars.
14:26
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I knew it was going to be depressing.
14:28
Speaker 3: That is a lot of money. And I can't even
14:31
Speaker 3: fell them having like Wetty Star. That's insane.
14:34
Speaker 2: It's insane. It's also like to me, I think it
14:37
Speaker 2: makes sense, like in terms of the impact and the
14:41
Speaker 2: longevity of things like as we heard before, we said
14:45
Speaker 2: that the five year survival rate for prostate cancer was
14:48
Speaker 2: ninety five percent, and that cancer was on the lower scale,
14:52
Speaker 2: so that was thirty six thousand, eight hundred So that's
14:55
Speaker 2: a lot. That's a lot of money.
14:56
Speaker 3: We are not downplaying that for any moment, but often
15:00
Speaker 3: if identified earlier, it can be gotten rid of and
15:03
Speaker 3: you can return to life as usual. Something like headneck,
15:07
Speaker 3: and thyroid cancers, which had the cost of ninety five,
15:10
Speaker 3: four hundred and sixty dollars as an average lifetime cost,
15:13
Speaker 3: often aren't identified as early as a prostate cancer. Really,
15:17
Speaker 3: So like there's lots that go into these numbers. There's
15:20
Speaker 3: different levels of care, there's different types of surgeries and
15:23
Speaker 3: different types of you know, radiation and chemotherapy and things
15:26
Speaker 3: that go into this.
15:27
Speaker 2: But that's just so much money that we just don't
15:31
Speaker 2: have back.
15:32
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, unfortunately, so V what are the sorts of
15:35
Speaker 3: numbers that we're looking at when it comes to dollars
15:37
Speaker 3: for drugs and treatment and also what cancer sufferer is
15:40
Speaker 3: willing to actually pursue for treatment.
15:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I guess again, I want to before answering this,
15:47
Speaker 2: just really acknowledge our privilege, Like this is so much money.
15:50
Speaker 2: I don't want people to think that we're complaining about
15:52
Speaker 2: these costs though, because if we look around the world,
15:56
Speaker 2: I guess competing healthcare systems, these things send people into debt.
16:01
Speaker 2: The average cost of cancer in America is like a
16:05
Speaker 2: million dollars whoa because of the type of treatment and
16:08
Speaker 2: everything is out of pocket, Like that is a u
16:11
Speaker 2: cost if you don't have health care through your job,
16:13
Speaker 2: which is again is an absolute privilege. And as we know,
16:17
Speaker 2: like if you don't have health care, you're probably the
16:20
Speaker 2: type of person that probably can't afford to pay the
16:23
Speaker 2: out of pocket fees because you're not a full time employee.
16:27
Speaker 2: And that's not a judgment, that is just the fact
16:30
Speaker 2: of the matter. Often health care comes with those higher
16:33
Speaker 2: level white collar jobs, right like you hear about it
16:35
Speaker 2: all the time, or I do on TikTok because I'm
16:37
Speaker 2: on like the HR side of TikTok and it's like
16:39
Speaker 2: so juicy. I don't know if anybody else I don't know,
16:43
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm also on I think I've told
16:44
Speaker 2: you this before, Utah Mum TikTok. I've told you this.
16:48
Speaker 2: Have I told you this?
16:49
Speaker 3: Sounds familiar? Yep?
16:50
Speaker 2: So in Utah, lots of them are Mormons, and I'm
16:54
Speaker 2: adoring learning about how they live their lives and how
16:57
Speaker 2: much they are obsessed with diet coke. And I told
17:00
Speaker 2: you about how I ordered those line packets. Well we've upgraded.
17:04
Speaker 2: I have become a Utah mum. I bought the Stanley
17:07
Speaker 2: cup that they have. And you're not going to know
17:09
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about because they're not crazy. But there
17:10
Speaker 2: are going to be people listening to this podcast that
17:12
Speaker 2: are shaking their heads and they're like, no, you didn't, Victoria,
17:14
Speaker 2: No you didn't.
17:15
Speaker 3: We want phonus.
17:16
Speaker 2: I will put it on Instagram, but we'll leave this
17:18
Speaker 2: conversation there. But it is an absolute privilege to have
17:22
Speaker 2: the numbers we have. I mean, they could be better.
17:24
Speaker 2: There are definitely better healthcare systems around the world, but
17:27
Speaker 2: there are definitely worse ones that could absolutely destroy you.
17:31
Speaker 1: Beck.
17:32
Speaker 2: So jumping back on that, Beck, the average cost paid
17:35
Speaker 2: by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or the PBS, which I
17:38
Speaker 2: seem to be struggling to get out today per anti
17:41
Speaker 2: cancer prescription has increased far in excessive inflation and is
17:45
Speaker 2: currently seven hundred and eighty six dollars. Pharmaceutical companies can
17:50
Speaker 2: spend up to two billion dollars developing new cancer treatments,
17:53
Speaker 2: and then patients using drugs not supported by the PBS
17:57
Speaker 2: can face bills of up to five thousand dollars a
18:01
Speaker 2: month jeez a month or more. Individuals who are facing
18:05
Speaker 2: an uncertain future will seek any source of hope, even
18:08
Speaker 2: if the efficacy of the treatment is unclear. And people
18:11
Speaker 2: who live outside major cities have seventeen times the odd
18:16
Speaker 2: of reporting locational or financial barriers to care compared to
18:20
Speaker 2: those living in metropolitan areas, Isn't that wild? Like, I
18:24
Speaker 2: know that makes sense, and I mentioned it before, and
18:26
Speaker 2: I guess that's why because we look into it. But
18:29
Speaker 2: it's just you can't access it because you either can't
18:32
Speaker 2: get there you can't afford to get there.
18:35
Speaker 3: That's really scary.
18:36
Speaker 2: So unfair.
18:36
Speaker 3: I know, it's unfair. It's scary, and it's pretty devastating.
18:41
Speaker 3: So the big focus of our previous episodes has been
18:44
Speaker 3: the hidden cost and careers who are family members or
18:47
Speaker 3: friends and they often don't get looked at. So what
18:49
Speaker 3: do we know about the cost to caregivers of people
18:52
Speaker 3: with cancer?
18:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the average overall cost to the household is
18:56
Speaker 2: estimated at forty eight thousand dollars. Jeez, that's like an
19:01
Speaker 2: annual salary for some people. Around seventy two percent of
19:05
Speaker 2: cancer cares report a negative financial impact of caring, and
19:09
Speaker 2: more than half of cares who work full time need
19:12
Speaker 2: to take leave or reduce their working hours. Around one
19:16
Speaker 2: point three million hours of informal care are provided to
19:20
Speaker 2: individuals with cancer each year. Wow, it's a lot of hours.
19:23
Speaker 2: That is it's a lot of unpaid hours.
19:25
Speaker 3: Yes, that is exactly right.
19:28
Speaker 2: That's unacceptable.
19:29
Speaker 3: It's unacceptable. I feel like this is a really good
19:32
Speaker 3: moment to jump to a quick break and come straight
19:35
Speaker 3: back and see you guys on the other side. Okay,
19:42
Speaker 3: v we are back, and we are talking about the
19:44
Speaker 3: cost of cancer in Australia, the third in this series
19:47
Speaker 3: breaking down how much healthcare really costs in this country.
19:51
Speaker 3: So v I wanted to ask about some more detail
19:53
Speaker 3: now on more common types of cancer. You mentioned process cancer.
19:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the most common.
19:58
Speaker 3: That's the most common. Yeah, so let's look at that
20:00
Speaker 3: one first, I.
20:01
Speaker 2: Suppose, all right, So, as we mentioned at the top
20:04
Speaker 2: of the episode, the average cost or the average lifetime
20:07
Speaker 2: cost is thirty six eight hundred dollars. Seventy percent of
20:11
Speaker 2: people diagnosed with prostate cancer reports spending more on cancer
20:15
Speaker 2: treatment than they had expected, and the average out of
20:18
Speaker 2: pocket cost of care for prostate cancer treatment in newly
20:22
Speaker 2: diagnosed patients was eleven thousand and seventy seven dollars in
20:26
Speaker 2: the first year and ranged from two hundred and fifty
20:29
Speaker 2: bucks all the way up to thirty thousand dollars. Spending
20:33
Speaker 2: was largely on things like specialist fees, hospital services, medical
20:36
Speaker 2: equipment and supplies. In medicine, one in four people stopped
20:40
Speaker 2: working as a result of their diagnosis, and out of
20:43
Speaker 2: those who retired, most had done so four to five
20:47
Speaker 2: years earlier than they had actually planned to do so.
20:50
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, that would I imagine cost a lot in itself.
20:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. That's five years of not investing. That's five
20:57
Speaker 2: years of not saving. That's five years I won't say behind,
21:01
Speaker 2: but that's five years that you didn't get further ahead
21:03
Speaker 2: than you thought you were going.
21:04
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, absolutely, it's a lot. So let's talk next
21:08
Speaker 3: about breast cancer.
21:09
Speaker 2: So the average cost, as we said earlier, is thirty
21:11
Speaker 2: six thousand and forty dollars. I really want to know,
21:14
Speaker 2: like the this specific breakdowns of where they got that
21:17
Speaker 2: additional forty bucks from. It's not just thirty six thousand,
21:20
Speaker 2: thirty six thousand and forty dollars.
21:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm curious about that.
21:23
Speaker 2: Very specific, but major contributors to the out of pocket
21:27
Speaker 2: costs for breast cancer breast reconstructive surgery, which can be optional,
21:32
Speaker 2: that ranges between two thousand, nine hundred and fifty seven
21:35
Speaker 2: dollars to nine thousand, four hundred and seventy two dollars.
21:38
Speaker 2: Radiotherapy between seventeen hundred and fifty one to two thousand,
21:42
Speaker 2: one hundred and one dollars. Pathology tests. I didn't see
21:47
Speaker 2: this one coming. So is going get a blood test? Right?
21:50
Speaker 4: Blood?
21:51
Speaker 2: Like pathology? Yeah, and like obviously not just blood tests,
21:54
Speaker 2: but like sending like bits of tissue off to the
21:57
Speaker 2: lab to be sampled and stuff. I just didn't realize
22:00
Speaker 2: how expensive it was. That's between thirty five hundred dollars
22:03
Speaker 2: and four thousand, two hundred and fifty bucks. Ohoh, that's
22:06
Speaker 2: a lot, right. I just thought radiotherapy would be the
22:09
Speaker 2: more expensive one out of those two, right, True genetic testing,
22:13
Speaker 2: so that's between seven hundred and seventy four dollars and
22:16
Speaker 2: twelve hundred and fifty one dollars, and MRIs they're between
22:20
Speaker 2: four hundred and fifty one and fifteen hundred and fifty
22:23
Speaker 2: four dollars. So those are a lot of costs.
22:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I suppose so some of them, Like the
22:29
Speaker 3: genetic testing I only recently discovered that's for like to
22:33
Speaker 3: see if it will come back and to see if
22:35
Speaker 3: it's in the family in a way.
22:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, And with breast cancer there's a specific type of
22:38
Speaker 2: gene and you can do some genetic testing like today
22:41
Speaker 2: if you don't have breast cancer and see if you
22:45
Speaker 2: carry that gene, and if you do, your likelihood of
22:47
Speaker 2: you developing breast cancer is incredibly high, so you can
22:51
Speaker 2: do something about it and like work out what that
22:53
Speaker 2: looks like and that gene is genetic. Yeah, okay, if
22:57
Speaker 2: your mum has it, you should be getting tested. And
23:00
Speaker 2: I think that that should be true of everybody. I
23:02
Speaker 2: always think that if something's going on in your family
23:05
Speaker 2: and you carry the same genes, Like we were talking
23:07
Speaker 2: about prostate cancer before, like if you also have a prostate,
23:11
Speaker 2: you probably should get that checked, just to be on
23:14
Speaker 2: the safe side, right, Like, if something's happening to them,
23:17
Speaker 2: don't think, Okay, well that's happening to them, it will
23:19
Speaker 2: never happen to me. Like, just be more active about
23:22
Speaker 2: these things. Yeah, like just be on top of it. Again,
23:25
Speaker 2: similar to insurance. I'd love that to be a waste
23:28
Speaker 2: of your time. Yeah, I would really love that.
23:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I completely agree. Now let's look at bow cancer X.
23:35
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the average lifetime costs for bow cancer was
23:37
Speaker 2: fifty four hundred and sixty bucks and bow cancer is
23:40
Speaker 2: the second most common cause of death from cancer in
23:43
Speaker 2: Australia behind lung cancer. WHOA. Costs from bow cancer include
23:48
Speaker 2: those related to medical appointments, tests and treatments. People with
23:52
Speaker 2: suspected bow cancer may have initial investigations with a GP,
23:56
Speaker 2: followed up by more in depth investigations by a specialist doctor.
24:00
Speaker 2: Overall survival rates for bow cancer are much lower than
24:03
Speaker 2: other common cancers such as prostate and breast cancer. That's
24:07
Speaker 2: really sad, I because I think it's hits one of
24:10
Speaker 2: those things that they come up quite late.
24:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, right right, And to my knowledge, I don't
24:16
Speaker 3: believe there's a lot of awareness, so maybe not enough awareness.
24:19
Speaker 2: There's not enough awareness around bad cancer at all. I've
24:22
Speaker 2: actually got a girlfriend who is a nurse at a
24:25
Speaker 2: clinic that does like colonoscopiece and endoscopies and stuff like
24:29
Speaker 2: that to check your digestive system. And the amount of
24:33
Speaker 2: people that she diagnoses with bow cancer or like, you know,
24:38
Speaker 2: she's not the diagnoso, you know what I mean, She's
24:40
Speaker 2: in there and they find bow cancer is wild. But
24:42
Speaker 2: the other thing is a thing called polyps, and having
24:46
Speaker 2: polyps in your bow is an indicator that they could
24:49
Speaker 2: turn into cancer. So you can actually get checked. And
24:53
Speaker 2: she said that so many people just think, oh, you know,
24:56
Speaker 2: a little bit of blood, am I still that was
24:58
Speaker 2: just normal, like it'll go away, it'll go away, and
25:00
Speaker 2: we just sweep it under the table, don't think about it.
25:03
Speaker 2: Because honestly, it's not that comfortable to talk about pooh, right,
25:06
Speaker 2: but you just don't really want to talk about that doo.
25:08
Speaker 2: You're not going to bring it up with your partner.
25:10
Speaker 2: It's not that sexy. I get it.
25:12
Speaker 4: But you really should be.
25:13
Speaker 2: You really should be having these conversations and if anything
25:17
Speaker 2: is a little bit off, talk g YOUGP. Yeah again,
25:19
Speaker 2: I would prefer you to get checked and have a
25:21
Speaker 2: polyp removed that your doctor's like, oh, it's just better
25:24
Speaker 2: to get rid of it in case it turned into
25:26
Speaker 2: boil cancer. Then have a really nasty conversation later down
25:29
Speaker 2: the track.
25:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I love that. So this is a really
25:32
Speaker 3: good time for me. Ask me, what do you want
25:33
Speaker 3: people to take away from this episode?
25:35
Speaker 2: Take care of your health please, but also being aware
25:38
Speaker 2: of these things and how they play into the necessity
25:42
Speaker 2: of insurance in Australia. But we know here in Australia
25:45
Speaker 2: we are the most underinsured country in the entire world
25:49
Speaker 2: because we've just got to should be right kind of attitude.
25:52
Speaker 2: And as much as that is beautiful, it is so nice,
25:56
Speaker 2: right this idea that we're like a little bit carefree,
25:58
Speaker 2: a little bit cool. We all sound like we go
26:00
Speaker 2: Byron on the weekends. But unfortunately, it doesn't matter who
26:04
Speaker 2: you are, what your income is, what your social status is,
26:07
Speaker 2: what anything is in your life, you can and might
26:10
Speaker 2: be affected by these things. And I think that it's
26:13
Speaker 2: better to be educated than completely unaware. So I think
26:17
Speaker 2: it's all about please get the small things checked. There's
26:19
Speaker 2: no such thing as a silly question, especially in health.
26:23
Speaker 2: And I also think just make sure your insurances are
26:26
Speaker 2: up to date. If you are somebody who has a
26:28
Speaker 2: superannuation fund, nine times out of ten you already have
26:32
Speaker 2: insurances that you are paying for. And I find it
26:35
Speaker 2: so wild that when I talk about insurances, people like
26:38
Speaker 2: it's not worth it. I'm like, baby, you already got it.
26:41
Speaker 2: Like you're already paying fees. You may as well have
26:43
Speaker 2: somebody review it. Or you might review it to make
26:46
Speaker 2: sure you're actually getting bang for buck, because you might
26:49
Speaker 2: be spending two hundred bucks a year on something that
26:51
Speaker 2: does not cover you for anything that you want to
26:53
Speaker 2: be covered for, and that is a waste of your
26:55
Speaker 2: money and a waste of your time. There is nothing
26:58
Speaker 2: more heartbreaking back and then being approached by someone this
27:02
Speaker 2: is historically my financial advice life, who was not my client,
27:05
Speaker 2: who was like I really need to talk to a
27:07
Speaker 2: financial advisor because I don't understand SUPER and my insurances.
27:10
Speaker 2: Need to claim on my insurance inside SUPER because I'm
27:13
Speaker 2: going through a significant health event. And you go, I
27:17
Speaker 2: can't help you. You canceled that insurance because you said
27:20
Speaker 2: it wasn't worth it, or I can't help you because
27:24
Speaker 2: the claiming process is you know, it's not for a
27:27
Speaker 2: financial advisor to do. I can't help or I can't
27:30
Speaker 2: help you because of a multitude of different reasons, because
27:33
Speaker 2: it doesn't stack up because you didn't review it soon enough.
27:36
Speaker 2: So it might sound really harsh, but just do it, please,
27:39
Speaker 2: just do it.
27:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a hygiene factor.
27:41
Speaker 2: Get it done, Do it once, do it all right,
27:43
Speaker 2: check it again in five or ten years.
27:44
Speaker 1: Yep.
27:45
Speaker 4: It's not like an everyday thing.
27:46
Speaker 2: Please just don't be under insured. Absolutely sexy way to
27:50
Speaker 2: end this episode.
27:51
Speaker 3: It really is. So take it away everyone, Thank you
27:54
Speaker 3: so much for listening to this one.
27:55
Speaker 2: And we'll see you on Friday.
27:57
Speaker 3: Guys, we'll see you on Friday.
27:58
Speaker 2: It so furday, have a good way.
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