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Medical care in the U.S. costs more than it does in any other developed country. That means surviving cancer can empty a patient's bank account.
美国的医疗费用比其他发达国家要多很多，这意味着从癌症中幸存要掏空病人的钱包。
When Tori Geib got her cancer diagnosis, she thought she would be OK financially.
当托里·盖德诊断出癌症时，她认为她的经济条件可以。
I just went on what they said to do, and at the time I had really great, private insurance.
我只是照着他们说的去做，当时我有很不错的私人保险。
Three weeks later, her "great, private insurance" stopped covering her medication.
三周后，她的很不错的私人保险停止支付她的医疗费。
And I said, Well, how much will this be just to get through for the month? And they said, For the one month supply, it's $11,000.
然后我问，我治疗一个月需要花费多少时，他们说一个月的费用为1.1万美元。
That's about average for new cancer therapy in the U.S., but to make the situation even worse, it was only one of 13 drugs Geib needed.
这是美国癌症治疗的平均费用，但情况更糟糕的是，盖德只需要13种药物中的其中一种。
The astronomical cost of cancer treatment causes many patients in the U.S. to try to save money at the expense of their health.
高昂的治疗费导致美国许多病人以生命为代价的省钱。
One in four cancer patients actually report engaging in some risky behavior to try to save on costs,
四分之一的癌症病人会参与一些冒险的行为来省钱，
so either skipping refills of medications or even splitting doses.
他们或许会暂停吃药，甚至避免吃药。
A financial counselor at the cancer center helped Geib find a way to pay for her treatment.
该癌症中心的一名金融顾问帮助盖德寻找到了支付医疗费的方式。
We've helped over 30,000 patients gain access to grant funding or manufacturer assistance programs with a total value of over $500 million.
我们帮助3万多名病人获得了拨款或是制造商援助计划，该计划的总价值超过了5亿美元。
The hospital also introduced a new program that keeps these expensive medications from going to waste. Patients can now return pills they don't need.
医院还推出了新的项目，避免让昂贵的药物浪费，病人可以归还他们不需要的药物。
We put that medication into essentially a repository where we wait for the next patient that has a financial need
我们实际上是将药放在储存室，之后等待下一个需要经济支持的病人，
so that we can re-dispense that medication to another cancer patient.
这样我们可以再次分配药物到另一个需要的人手中。
The program helps patients focus on getting well and and not stressing about their finances.
该项目帮助病人关注在恢复病情上，而不是因为经济问题而产生负担。
There's so much stress that goes along with this diagnosis, and you really want to try to minimize that stress along with the cancer,
诊断随之而来的是很大的压力，你真的特别想将压力最小化，
and this is one thing that's been given to me that I'm so thankful and grateful for.
而我获得了这方面的帮助，我很感激，我很感谢。
Kennerly-Shah says the goal is to start out small, and then expand the program to cover medications for other diseases.
凯纳丽·沙尔说，目标是从小事做起，然后将该项目扩展到其它疾病的医疗费上。
Another goal is to provide a model that other institutions can copy, so more patients can afford their treatments.
另一个目标是提供模型，这样其它机构可以复制，更多病人可以支付得起医疗费。
Carol Pearson, VOA news
卡洛·皮尔森，VOA新闻
