When 69-year-old Amey Glynn visited the Riverina Cancer Care Centre last June for an initial consult ahead of radiotherapy treatment for her non-Hodgkin lymphoma she was handed a bill for almost $5,000.
"When she said that amount of money, I got the shock of my life," Ms Glynn said.
"I said, 'My God, how do people afford to have cancer in the Riverina?'"
The Riverina Cancer Care Centre (RCCC) in Wagga Wagga is the city's only radiotherapy provider, and one of the only facilities in the state where patients are not bulk-billed.
Medicare rebates are available to patients but the lack of bulk-billing is a funding "anomaly", according to Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr.
He said the centre was community-funded and built 20 years ago, a decade before the state government started running radiotherapy services of its own.
"Now the state health department is running radiotherapy services without out-of-pocket costs and that's meant Wagga has suffered because we went ahead and did it ourselves," he said.
"I don't think it's fair and it needs to be resolved."
This week, Dr McGirr tabled a 12,000-signature petition in New South Wales parliament calling for the government to cover out-of-pocket costs with funding.
Health Minister Ryan Park has not commented on the petition and referred the ABC's questions to The Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).
The MLHD said it was reviewing an agreement with the Cancer Care Group, which runs the RCCC, "that ensures patients have affordable access to the Wagga Wagga facility".
Cancer Care's chief operating officer Damien Williams has previously said the agreement applied to a minority of patients, and the state government should provide support.
Costly care
Though rebates are available on the payments through the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, every Tuesday Ms Glynn had to find $1,300 to pay upfront for her treatment, in addition to her initial bill.
She could afford it but said those who couldn't were often too stressed, or embarrassed to navigate complex reimbursement schemes or financial support.
"They've got cancer, they're scared out of their brains, and now they have to apply for help," she said.
"So they don't get it, or they don't follow it through, or I've talked to a couple of people that didn't bother getting any treatment.
"I was appalled. That's when I really started to think this is a disgrace."
Dr McGirr said he'd heard the same.
"It is a real burden on people and I do think it influences people's decisions on the length of therapy and type of therapy they take," he said.
He said the of signatures, one of them Ms Glynn's, showed there was a lot of public support for government intervention.
"This is clearly an issue people feel very strongly about," he said.
The petition will be debated in parliament next week.
Ms Glynn is in remission following her treatment at the Riverina Cancer Care Centre.
