Forum Discussion
Radiation Costs
Just curious, if anybody else has done radiation privately and had large out of pocket expenses. Just weighing up my options and was shocked at how expensive the out of pocket expense are, I've been quoted $5k for 6 weeks worth of treatment. Is this the norm?
38 Replies
- I am a Radiation Therapist (and have just been diagnosed with breast cancer), Radiotherapy is free in the public system, the treatment is the same and all centres have state of the art Linear Accelerators, you can request appointment times to fit in with your work and other appointments.
- I went public for rad therapy at peter mac although I had rest of my treatment as private patient. Staff at peter mac were great and new hospital had state of art equipment. I checked my Medicare statement at the end and the cost, which I didn't have to pay but was billed to Medicare, was 115 per day with a bit extra for consults with radio oncologist. Peter mac was 15 minute walk from work so I would duck in and out for treatment.
- I have to say I also have been a Private Patient for alot of it including chemo, however, for radiation I went public. It honestly was exactly the same as private, I had a schedule once I started and knew my times for a week at a time, in and out, no delays at all and most importantly, no damn out of pocket!!
- Just finished 3 weeks at no cost public and the team were absolutely brilliant and so caring went above and beyond despite my delaying and questioning and 3 visits before I agreed to it. I had to be sure of this being right for me All the best in finding a solution
Investigate the public options. It's really naughty for your surgeon not to give you that information--and they wonder why we get the shits with them.
It's up to you how much the cost vs inconvenience equation plays out but you definitely will be able to get into the public system one way or the other. Marg
- I had private hospital surgery & chemo but went public for radiotherapy. My radiation oncologist offered to do it private but I had heard you could be out of pocket quite a bit. Public was great, appointment 5 days a week for 5 weeks at 7.45am, free parking right outside & I went to work after, in and out in 20 mins!
- I went private, with the idea I could get a set appt so that I could still work. They quoted up to $6000, but it only ended up costing around $3000. Then I found out that the public does have the set appt times and have heard no complaints!! Wasted that money. Pretty poopy that we pay through the nose for private and still end up paying ... Although I was lucky to struck my guys - the out of pocket expenses were very reasonable. Onc charges $110 and I get $90 back. No cost for the whole of chemo. Just the $300 yearly hospital fee (Ihad two pmts). Surgeon - same $110 with $90 back - no charge for surgery - just the anesthetic. The real costs for me were all the tests, thank goodness for the higher rate from medicare when your over the limit. My whole treatment cost about $6500.
- Might add going public was not mentioned and they did have a payment plan which made it a bit easier.So the out of pocket you describe seems about right
- I had 16 rounds of radiotherapy cost $17000 of which $2000 was out of pocket.
I have just got my test results back which puts me in the low risk category for the cancer reoccurring so I'm lucky I don't need to have chemo, but will need to still have radiotherapy I live on the Mornington Peninsula and my surgeon referred me to a private hospital for the radiotherapy which will cost me $2000 out of pocket, I'm waiting on my surgeon to get back to me as this is something I really cant afford and would prefer to go through the public sector - has anyone down this way gone through the public sector for radiotherapy? I'm just wondering why my surgeon didn't give me the option - maybe there are no public hospitals down this way that do the treatment?
