Cancer Screenings Cost Americans $43 Billion Annually

A radiology technologist looks at a CT scan of a lung with a tumor at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco on Aug. 17, 2005. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The United States spends more than $40 billion annually on initial cancer screenings, with almost two-thirds of this amount attributed to screening for colorectal cancers, according to a peer-reviewed study.

In the study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Aug. 6, researchers analyzed data from national health care surveys, and found that the “total health care system costs for initial cancer screenings in the United States in 2021 were estimated at $43 billion.”

“Approximately 88.3 percent of costs were attributable to private insurance; 8.5 percent to Medicare; and 3.2 percent to Medicaid, other government programs, and uninsured persons,” according to the study.

Roughly 64 percent of the total cost of cancer screenings was for colorectal cancer. Facility costs—the payments to centers conducting the tests—were found to be a major driver of cancer screening expenses.

Researchers said that the $43 billion estimated cancer screening costs are lower than the reported cost of cancer treatment in the United States in the first year after diagnosis.

They noted that screening may decrease cancer mortality and treatment costs. “Identification of cancer screening costs and their drivers is critical to help inform policy and develop programmatic priorities, particularly for enhancing access to recommended cancer screening services,” the researchers wrote. No funding sources were reported.

Cancer screening is crucial for people at risk of the disease, and detecting cancer earlier can reduce the cost of treatment. In addition, people can often continue to work while getting early treatment.

A survey conducted by the American Cancer Society (ACS) in March-April found that 47 percent of cancer patients and survivors incurred debt to pay for cancer care.

Seven out of ten individuals were in the age group of 35 to 44 while more than half lived in states that do not have expanded Medicare. People with cancer debts were found to be over three times more likely to be behind on their screenings.

Cancer Screening Legislation

The study comes amid a rising number of cancer cases in the United States. The country is set to see more than two million cases in 2024 for the first ever time, according to estimates by the American Cancer Society (ACS). This amounts to around 5,500 new cancer diagnoses per day. More than 611,000 cancer deaths are projected for this year.

“This trend is largely affected by the aging and growth of the population and by a rise in diagnoses of 6 of the 10 most common cancers—breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, kidney, and melanoma,” the organization said in January.

ACS said that four of the cancers that are seeing an uptrend have screening tests available—breast, prostate, colorectal, and cervical. In the case of cervical and colorectal cancers, screening can “actually prevent cancer altogether by detecting precancerous lesions that can be removed.”

Meanwhile, lawmakers are introducing bills to control the costs of treatment for cancer patients. In June, a group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) Screening Coverage Act.

The bill seeks to ensure that Medicare patients have coverage for innovative tests capable of identifying cancers before the development of symptoms.

“Multi-cancer early detection testing technologies have the potential to provide a vital new tool in the fight against cancer, transforming the screening landscape to detect as many as dozens of cancer types, often long before symptoms even emerge,” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said.

The measure “has the potential to save and enhance lives, as well as to reduce long-term cost burdens for patients, families and caregivers.”

In July, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill providing state citizens with better access to personalized treatments for cancer and certain other diseases through biomarker testing and precision medicine. Biomarker testing aims to identify biological changes at the molecular level, enhancing the detection of various cancers.