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Washington State cancer patients found to be at greater risk for bankruptcy than people without a cancer diagnosis.

Authors :
Ramsey S
Blough D
Kirchhoff A
Kreizenbeck K
Fedorenko C
Snell K
Newcomb P
Hollingworth W
Overstreet K
Source :
Health affairs (Project Hope) [Health Aff (Millwood)] 2013 Jun; Vol. 32 (6), pp. 1143-52. Date of Electronic Publication: 2013 May 15.
Publication Year :
2013

Abstract

Much has been written about the relationship between high medical expenses and the likelihood of filing for bankruptcy, but the relationship between receiving a cancer diagnosis and filing for bankruptcy is less well understood. We estimated the incidence and relative risk of bankruptcy for people age twenty-one or older diagnosed with cancer compared to people the same age without cancer by conducting a retrospective cohort analysis that used a variety of medical, personal, legal, and bankruptcy sources covering the Western District of Washington State in US Bankruptcy Court for the period 1995-2009. We found that cancer patients were 2.65 times more likely to go bankrupt than people without cancer. Younger cancer patients had 2-5 times higher rates of bankruptcy than cancer patients age sixty-five or older, which indicates that Medicare and Social Security may mitigate bankruptcy risk for the older group. The findings suggest that employers and governments may have a policy role to play in creating programs and incentives that could help people cover expenses in the first year following a cancer diagnosis.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2694-233X
Volume :
32
Issue :
6
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Health affairs (Project Hope)
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
23676531
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1263