Medicare Coverage for Thyroid Cancer and Survival Rates

Discover Medicare coverage to treat thyroid cancer and its survival rates by stage and type.

David Minaya

December 14, 2023

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Thyroid cancer is about three times more common in women than men. Furthermore, new thyroid cases in females peaked between age 40 and 45, and new cases for males peaked between ages 55 and 64. The good news is most thyroid cancer can be cured if it does not spread. 80% of thyroid cancers are slow-growing papillary cancers with a 99.5% 5-year survival rate.

Medicare Coverage for Thyroid Cancer

Medicare may cover surgery to remove the thyroid gland, called a thyroidectomy. When a surgeon removes the entire thyroid gland, it’s called a total thyroidectomy .

Other thyroid cancer treatments that Medicare may cover include:

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Radioactive Iodine (Radioiodine) Therapy – can be used to destroy thyroid tissue not removed by surgery.

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Thyroid Hormone Therapy – after a thyroidectomy, your body can no longer make thyroid hormone. Thus, you will need thyroid hormone pills to help maintain normal metabolism.

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External Beam Radiation Therapy – uses high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells.

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Chemotherapy – learn how much it costs with Medicare.

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Targeted Drug Therapy – blocks kinases (proteins) inside cells that relay signals, such as telling the cell to grow.

For Medicare coverage, please call Senior Healthcare Direct at 1-833-463-3262 and speak with a licensed agent.

Thyroid Cancer Survival Rates

Cancer.org defines survival rates as the percentage of people with the same type and stage of cancer who are still alive for an amount of time (5 years) after diagnosis.

Other than thyroid, different types of cancer may include:

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Colon

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Skin

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Lung

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Prostate

The stage of cancer depends on its spread. Thyroid cancer has the following stages:

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Localized – cancer has not spread outside the thyroid.

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Regional – cancer has spread outside the thyroid to nearby structures.

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Distant – cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.

5-Year Relative Survival Rates

A relative survival rate is based on the same type and stage of thyroid cancer. A 5-year relative survival rate means that for a specific type and stage of thyroid cancer, it estimates the percentage of people, on average, who lived for at least five years after being diagnosed.

Localized thyroid cancer has a greater than 99.5% survival rate for these three cancer types: Papillary, Follicular, and Medullary.

Regional thyroid cancer has a lower survival rate:

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99% for Papillary

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98% for Follicular

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92% for Medullary

Distant thyroid cancer has the lowest survival rate:

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74% for Papillary

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67% for Follicular

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43% for Medullary

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