The Foundation for
Financial Planning is calling for a national response to the potential
financial ruin of families fighting the disease through the Pro Bono for Cancer
Campaign
Sep 21, 2018 @ 10:12 am
By Jon Dauphiné
I'll never forget the shock when my
brother-in-law, Billy — an avid athlete and outdoorsman — visited a doctor for
his heartburn, only to learn he had stage 4 esophageal cancer. He fought the
disease hard, but it claimed him eight months later, leaving behind my sister
and teenage nieces.
An attorney, Billy had always handled the
family finances, and my sister scrambled to understand what she needed to do
while managing the flood of incoming medical bills. She was lucky enough to
have the resources to access a good financial planner, ensuring a measure of
economic stability to weather the emotional and financial storm. But many
Americans lack access to a planner, and for them a cancer diagnosis can trigger
a financial catastrophe that has negative consequences on their emotional and
physical health.
Researchers have found that financial issues
are the second most frequent source of distress identified by cancer patients.
They've even coined a name for this: "Cancer-Related Financial
Toxicity" (CRFT), manifested by a mix of severe economic stress,
depression and anxiety that can worsen the underlying health condition. Even
with private health insurance or coverage through Medicare or Medicaid,
families are at substantial risk of a financial disaster. They experience not
only a major increase in daily expenses but often a significant loss of income
due to the patient's and caregiver's inability to maintain full-time work. The
impact on patients can be grim:
• 38% postpone or do
not fill drug prescriptions to reduce costs
• 37% cut back on
groceries
• 36% deplete their
savings
• 24% borrow against their retirement funds
One study found cancer patients are nearly
three times more likely to go bankrupt than people of a similar age without
cancer. Another found that cancer patients in bankruptcy were 80% more likely
to die from any cause than other people with cancer.
Objective, expert financial advice and
planning can benefit these patients. Scott Ramsey, a health economist,
researcher and physician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle,
recommended in a Washington Post interview that all patients diagnosed with
cancer be assessed for financial risk — and for those deemed at-risk, that
health-care providers "be very aggressive with getting them to financial
planning [and] to patient assistance programs to reduce their likelihood of
having financial devastation."
The Foundation for Financial Planning is
helping to drive a national response to the problem through the Pro Bono for Cancer Campaign,
our signature initiative to develop and support efforts around the country to
connect cancer patients and their families to free, quality financial advice.
We've raised significant seed funding, allocated more than $445,000 in grants
and partnered with other nonprofits such as Family Reach, which specializes in
helping people with cancer across the nation, and the Financial Planning
Association, which is working to recruit CFP professionals to volunteer for the
effort. We've funded an infrastructure — spearheaded by Family Reach — that
includes a special online CFP training (offering CE credit) and a digital
platform for connecting planners to patients.
Since the effort launched earlier this year,
dozens of CFP volunteers have been matched to families in need. As the program
grows, we hope to reach many hundreds of low- to middle-income families to
assist them with pro bono financial planning, with most of the engagements
conducted virtually so we can better match the supply of patients to available
volunteers. Outcomes will be measured and reported by some of the leading
researchers on CRFT, enabling us to refine the program over time.
To meet our ambitious goals, we need help from
the financial planning community. Your time and support can assist people like
Mike and Leslie Longo, whose comfortable middle-class life with their three
kids was upended when Mike received a diagnosis of a rare form of non-Hodgkin
lymphoma at just 32 years old. Mike has faced grueling treatment and relapses,
and his family has struggled to pay basic expenses, including their mortgage
and utility bills. As part of our Pro Bono for Cancer effort, the Longos have
been connected to a volunteer financial planner who is helping them manage
their financial challenges, serving as a trusted adviser as they chart their
future path.
Thousands of families like the Longos are
currently struggling to navigate the financial toxicity of cancer on their own,
providing the financial planning profession with an extraordinary opportunity
to help. Will you join us? Find out how you can pitch in by visiting ProBono4Cancer.org.
Jon Dauphiné is chief executive of the
Foundation for Financial Planning.
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