Health Insurance Coverage Disruptions and Access to Care and Affordability among Cancer Survivors in the United States

Abstract Background: Lack of health insurance is associated with having problems with access to high-quality care. We estimated prevalence and evaluated associations of insurance coverage disruptions and access to health care and affordability among cancer survivors in the United States. Methods: Adult cancer survivors ages 18 to 64 years with current private or public health insurance were identified from the 2011 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey (n = 7,186). Health insurance coverage disruption was measured as self-reports of any time in the prior year without coverage. Outcomes included preventive services use, problems with care affordability, and cost-related medication nonadherence in the prior year. We used separate multivariable logistic models to evaluate associations between coverage disruptions and study outcomes by current insurance coverage. Results: Among currently insured survivors, 3.7% 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 3.0%–4.4% with private, and 7.8% (95% CI, 6.5%–9.4%) with public insurance reported coverage disruptions in 2011 to 2018. We estimated that approximately 260,000 survivors ages 18 to 64 years had coverage disruptions in 2018. Among privately and publicly insured survivors, those with coverage disruptions were less likely to report all preventive services use (16.9% vs. 36.2%; 14.6% vs. 25.3%, respectively) and more likely to report any problems with care affordability (55.0% vs. 17.7%; 71.1% vs. 38.4%, respectively) and any cost-related medication nonadherence (39.4% vs. 10.1%; 36.5% vs. 16.3%, respectively) compared with those continuously insured (all P 0.05). Conclusions: Coverage disruptions in the prior year were associated with problems with health care access and affordability among currently insured survivors. Impact: Reducing coverage disruptions may help improve access and affordability for survivors.