TY - JOUR
T1 - Health and life insurance-related problems in very long-term cancer survivors in Germany
T2 - a population-based study
AU - Thong, Melissa S. Y.
AU - Doege, Daniela
AU - Weißer, Linda
AU - Koch-Gallenkamp, Lena
AU - Bertram, Heike
AU - Eberle, Andrea
AU - Holleczek, Bernd
AU - Nennecke, Alice
AU - Waldmann, Annika
AU - Zeissig, Sylke Ruth
AU - Pritzkuleit, Ron
AU - Schlander, Michael
AU - Brenner, Hermann
AU - Arndt, Volker
N1 - Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This research was funded by German Cancer Aid, grant numbers 108262, 70112089. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Purpose: Limited research suggests that cancer survivors have problems with insurance. Our study aimed to gain insight into the proportion of very long-term (14–24 years post-diagnosis) survivors of breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers who had problems with health (HI) and life (LI) insurance. Methods: We used data from CAESAR (CAncEr Survivorship—A multi-Regional population-based study). Participants completed questions on change in insurance providers since cancer diagnosis, problems with requesting (additional) HI or LI, and how potential problems were resolved. We conducted logistic regression to determine factors associated with change in statutory HI. Results: Of the 2714 respondents, 174 (6%) reported having changed HI providers. Most switched between different statutory HI providers (86%), 9% from statutory to private, and 5% from private to statutory. Respondents who changed statutory HI providers were more likely to be prostate cancer survivors (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.01–7.68) while being ≥ 65 years at time of diagnosis (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35–0.96) and having ≥ 2 comorbid conditions (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40–0.92) were associated with reduced odds for change. Problems in changing HI were minimal and were resolved with additional contribution. Of the 310 respondents who tried to get LI, 25 respondents reported having difficulties, of whom the majority had their request rejected. Conclusion: Most cancer survivors did not change their HI nor tried to buy LI after cancer diagnosis. Problems with changing statutory HI were generally resolved with additional contribution while the main problem encountered when buying LI was rejection of request.
AB - Purpose: Limited research suggests that cancer survivors have problems with insurance. Our study aimed to gain insight into the proportion of very long-term (14–24 years post-diagnosis) survivors of breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers who had problems with health (HI) and life (LI) insurance. Methods: We used data from CAESAR (CAncEr Survivorship—A multi-Regional population-based study). Participants completed questions on change in insurance providers since cancer diagnosis, problems with requesting (additional) HI or LI, and how potential problems were resolved. We conducted logistic regression to determine factors associated with change in statutory HI. Results: Of the 2714 respondents, 174 (6%) reported having changed HI providers. Most switched between different statutory HI providers (86%), 9% from statutory to private, and 5% from private to statutory. Respondents who changed statutory HI providers were more likely to be prostate cancer survivors (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.01–7.68) while being ≥ 65 years at time of diagnosis (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35–0.96) and having ≥ 2 comorbid conditions (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40–0.92) were associated with reduced odds for change. Problems in changing HI were minimal and were resolved with additional contribution. Of the 310 respondents who tried to get LI, 25 respondents reported having difficulties, of whom the majority had their request rejected. Conclusion: Most cancer survivors did not change their HI nor tried to buy LI after cancer diagnosis. Problems with changing statutory HI were generally resolved with additional contribution while the main problem encountered when buying LI was rejection of request.
KW - Cancer survivors
KW - Financial toxicity
KW - Insurance problems
KW - Population-based
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117046276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-021-03825-x
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-021-03825-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 34642793
SN - 0171-5216
VL - 148
SP - 155
EP - 162
JO - Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology
JF - Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology
IS - 1
ER -