Table 3:

Selected Excerpts Demonstrating Protective Factors against Financial Toxicity

Not Working
Female, 44: “I usually just work on Sundays at my job, and I’ve been there for 20 years now… So, yeah, I lost some work, you know… but it wasn’t major because I just worked a little bit each week. So, I’m lucky that way. Yeah, I lost money, but it wasn’t major because I don’t work full-time.”
Female, 76: “… I’ve been lucky. This can be devastating and of course age is part of it too. If I were a family bread winner of 35 or 45 it would be devasting to the family. It would affect everything from the family’s lifestyle to even the possibilities of the children’s future education.” {I: You were you retired when this happened?} “Yes.”
Female, 50: “I have a disability, so they—Social Security pay me—so I think it’s enough for me.”
Male, 64: “I get social security disability plus I’m still considered employed from my company and so I get long-term disability from my company. So, money is not a problem now.”
Public Health Insurance
Male, 70: “Financially we had no—we had good insurance. I’m retired so I have the Medicare. Then also we have [additional] good insurance for myself and that—being in the hospital and the rehab and all, everything got paid 100%. We never got one bill, as far as that goes. Everything got paid.”
Male, 57: {Patient’s brother speaking} “You know, [my brother] is on Medicare and Med-Cal and a lot of the expenses were covered, not all of them, but it’s been very little financial problems with them.”
Male, 35: {I: Have you had any financial difficulties or money problems because of what happened?} “No, my insurance covers it.” {I: Your insurance has covered everything that you’ve needed?} “Yeah, through my Medicaid.”
Generous Benefits
Male, 44: “I mean I was out on FMLA. So—I’d been with this company long enough that I was paid for 100 percent for everything, even though I was out.”
Female, 61: “Well my hospital bill is 2 million dollars. Million! We’ve paid $750. So, [my husband] worked at the university for 35 years and we have excellent insurance. So, that is not a problem in the least but we would have lost every single thing we owned if we didn’t have insurance.”