OBJECTIVES: Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States (US). The economic burden of breast cancer in the US is substantial and has been steadily increasing. This study evaluated the annual economic burden of breast cancer patients.

METHODS: The study included adult females from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data from 2015-2018. The exposure of interest was breast cancer, and the outcome of interest was the annual healthcare costs incurred by the patients. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with gamma distribution, log link, and inverse probability of treatment weighting was employed to assess the incremental annual healthcare costs associated with breast cancer.

RESULTS: Of 465,976,914 adult female patients, 3.42% (15,926,153 patients) had breast cancer. Breast cancer patients had a mean age of 67 (Standard Error (SE) = 0.53) years, were mostly Non-Hispanic whites (77%), retired (56%), and belonged to the south (37%). The annual per-patient GLM adjusted costs incurred by the breast cancer patients were 37% higher than the non-cancer patients, which was equivalent to $3,457 (95% Confidence Interval (CI), $1,897-$5,016) (in 2018 USD). The incremental payer’s burden associated with breast cancer was estimated to be $3,237(95%CI, $1,760- $4,713), while the out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure was not significantly different between breast cancer and other patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Although breast cancer patients have a significant economic burden compared to others, there were no significant differences in OOP cost between breast cancer and other patients.