The Hidden Costs of Being Sick

There are a few things in this country that I'm grateful for: Universal healthcare is one; labour laws are another.

When it comes to being sick, however, these make it easy for people to think they're more protected than they are. It's true, a hospital bill won't drive the average Canadian family into bankruptcy, but getting sick can mean real financial hardship if the possibility isn't given some consideration, either beforehand or at the time of diagnosis.

Ilene Shiller is a case manager at the Wellspring Cancer Support Network, specifically working in the Wellspring Money Matters program.

She points out that gaps or a drop in family income is usually one of the first things to happen when someone gets sick – people are often unable to work when they're receiving treatment.

Processing the paperwork to get government support, including Employment Insurance benefits or Canada Pension Plan disability benefits, or Ontario Disability Support (ODSP), can take a fair bit of time as well.

"It takes about six weeks, that's a month and a half, for a lot of programs to come through. That's three paychecks you've missed," says Elena Jara, director of education at Credit Canada Debt Solutions. "And you still need to cover household expenses. The first thing people do is they start to use credit to subsidize their income if there's no money coming in."

This descent can be slow, if you have some money saved, or it can be rather swift.


In addition to income gaps, there are a number of out-of-pocket expenses to consider:

• Hospital parking ($30/day in some places – no kidding)
• Childcare
• Long-distance phone calls
• Drug plan co-payments
• The cost of semi-private and private hospital rooms (Shiller says most health benefit plans don't cover these "accommodations.")
• Special dietary needs

To cope, there are a few things to do, both in advance, and right away if you or a family member has been diagnosed with an illness that will likely have an impact on your finances at some point.


Ahead of time:

1. Save some money in an emergency fund. Any little bit can help when trying to keep out of the debt hole, while still helping the hospital building fund with your parking fees.

2. Consider purchasing critical illness insurance. "It's pricy, but it's a good insurance plan to have," says Shiller. "I'm a big believer."


At the time of diagnosis:

1. Keep socking money away into that emergency fund, even if you're not off work yet.

2. Review your expenses as soon as possible. (Do you need to spend $200+ on your monthly cable package? Probably not. Pare back where you can and redirect those funds into savings.)

3. Get help. "Seek out information. The sooner you do it, the sooner you will know what programs are available to you," says Shiller. "Get help to navigate the federal and provincial programs. The sooner you can do that and get a plan in place, the less financial stress you'll have." (The Wellspring program will help also help its clients review workplace benefit policies; they'll help people determine their eligibility for certain programs, and can sometimes suggest other financial remedies that might not otherwise be considered, as well – certain drugs are not covered by provincial insurance, but might be covered by a drug company's compassionate access programs, for example.)


Plan ahead to the extent that you can, she says. After that, get all the help you can, particularly from hospital social workers and from programs offered by organizations like Wellspring.

"If someone comes to us, we sit down and try to understand their situation, what their potential income replace sources are, their drug coverage options, and then we help them map out a plan, and help them with all the forms," says Shiller. "Help helps." (That is, getting help – sooner than later – can often help the situation.) "The one thing we've seen in this program is that, in dealing with the stress of your medical condition, often, unfortunately, the financial stress gets layered on top of that."






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Kate McCaffery is a freelance writer, editor and former urbanite, now living somewhere in between the lake, the ski hill and some farmer's cow path. Visit mccaffery.ca/kate2.0/ for more information.