A freshly published study released out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham has shown that black people are more likely to sacrifice financial resources for an extended life when looking at life-threatening cancer. The study looked at lung and colorectal cancer specifically. The other minority groups sampled in the study were Asian and Hispanic, both of which were more likely than Caucasians to exhaust financial resources for the treatment options of loved ones.
To my surprise, the highest percentage of those who’d rather cancer care than cash, the blacks in the study, was 80%, Asians at 72%, Hispanics at 69% and, sadly, Caucasians were at 54%. Without seeing the data, I would’ve thought/hoped the percentage for all groups to be close to a hundred. Unfortunately, they weren’t and in reality, we are faced with these decisions often enough as health care advances while insurance rates surge. Even the oft seen 80/20 coverage some insurance companies offer, when considering aggressive cancer treatment, could bankrupt even an upper middle class American. Socio-cultural proof of this is the advent of specialty cancer insurance. With cancer rates as high as they are, life time prevalence, cancer insurance.
To interpret this evolutionarily, these benevolent family members place much more value in the cancer patient than superfluous financial resources, hence the giving up of resources that could easily be shunted to another member (use of term superfluous is a generalization; some of this money will come from cash assets, some from a HELOC or even selling one’s house). On this note, the study did find that those that were single or unattached in other means were generous as well. Apparently the Caucasians perceived better ways to allocate their resources; perhaps by taking preventative measures for oneself or one’s offspring. Cancer has one upped us though on that as it has been established that while preventative measures are helpful, extremely in some cases, they don’t make you immune and you could easily still get cancer after a lifetime of eating blueberries.
An interesting follow up study would be to assess the willingness to take out cancer insurance; again, looking at all four ethnic groups. I would add Native Americans to the study as they could surface important issues like the meaning of cancer to one’s culture, the degree to which it is respected, expected or dealt with. Native Americans continually show an altered view of illness and disease and given the amorphous concept that is cancer, I’m sure we’d find whole new dimensions of understanding which often influence financial decisions and the propensity to take out insurance.
I have a feeling the insurance companies would fund this study generously
If concerned:
Cancer.org has a lot of information on the financial strain of cancer
Study contact:
Contact: Jennifer Beal
healthnews@wiley.com
44-124-377-0633
Wiley-Blackwell
