Financing the treatment of a Glioblastoma

The first questions we receive from the people who contact us through this site are related to possible treatments but immediately after the request is the concrete one of how to finance them. Treating a glioblastoma can be expensive even if fortunately Italy is a country where health is public and healthcare is practically free of charge for potentially terminal diseases such as glioblastoma. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the topic in the Musella Foundation Guide which, however, analyzes the context of the United States where healthcare is private and the problem becomes above all insurance.

In Italy having an insurance can certainly help and facilitate at least partially covering the expenses not covered by the national health service which can become considerable especially if you choose to do treatments outside the region of residence, or even outside the national territory or outside the European Union. As we know, in case of treatments outside the national territory, the reimbursement obtainable reaches a maximum of 80% of the cost of the treatment. The food and accommodation costs of the assisted person and his / her accompanying persons are always excluded even if you remain in the national territory. Expenses for supplements and drugs used in the treatments described in publications such as Ben Williams‘ Surviving Terminal Cancer and the related video, but not only, are also always excluded from coverage.

To cover these expenses, the possibilities we have therefore become:

• any assistance programs provided by local administrations which are sometimes available but it is essential to ask and inquire to know them;
• personal insurance or provided by the employer that sometimes cover medical care and sometimes can also be extended to family members;
• your financial resources and your savings and I assure you that if you fall ill to this happens to a person you love, you will be willing to give up anything in order to survive or help them survive;
• the help of relatives and friends and in these moments it is possible to deeply understand the real depth of the different bonds;
• the help of foundations and charities such as the “Comitato Amici di Federico” or like other similar associations that generally operate on regional or national territory;
• a fundraising through the so-called crowdfunding as recently happened in the case of Gianpiero.

In the opinion of many, crowdfunding is the easiest and fastest way to raise funds quickly and also emotionally. To launch crowdfunding for medical expenses, a platform is needed to share a personal story with friends, relatives and acquaintances. In Italy the most popular platforms are Facebook and GoFundMe.

To be able to reach the necessary funds in both cases you have to ask relatives and friends for help to spread the news, to tell the story in a sincere and complete way, reporting who the campaign is for, what are the health problems, what are the costs and why the campaign is of fundamental importance, uploading photos and videos that help create empathy. It may also be useful to contact the local press to invite them to talk about your case and update the pages of the campaign to inform about the progress of the health conditions and the status of the collection by thanking the supporters. Medical treatment in countries such as the United States for a pathology such as glioblastoma multiforme can easily reach hundreds of thousands of euros and even exceed one million euros and technological tools such as crowdfunding and the help of benefactors can truly be of fundamental importance.