Abstract
The literature review assignment required me to work with other fellow class members and pick a topic of our own interest. We decided to focus on childhood cancer because it allowed us to research and learn more about the children having cancer and showcase that in our writing. The next part of the assignment required all my group members to focus on a specific but different subtopic on childhood cancer. I decided to focus on the economic aspect of childhood cancer, how it affects the families economically.
Economic Effects of Childhood Cancer
Child cancer is the most common cause of disease-related deaths for children in the U.S. The words “your child has cancer” are not easy to hear for any parent, yet these unsettling words are heard each year by the parents of approximately fifteen thousand and three hundred kids. The world of such families is flipped upside down after hearing those words and the economic hardships they have to face do not make it easy for them to cope, as they are faced with hospital bills. As a comparison, according to a journal published in the American Society of Clinical Oncology, “In 2009, pediatric cancer hospitalization cost in the United States averaged $40,400, nearly five times higher than hospitalization for any other pediatric condition ($8,100)”. (Warner, 2014). Most of this comes down to the healthcare coverage the parents are paying for, but beyond healthcare, often a parent has to decide between their careers and being available for their child. The economic hardship derived as a result of childhood cancer affects the jobs, health care coverage, and annual income of the parents whose child is battling cancer.
One of the difficult problems parents face after they hear about their kids’ cancer is figuring out how they will manage their jobs as well as provide time to take care of their child. In a survey conducted by the American Childhood Cancer Association, “75.7% of families with a child with cancer will have at least one parent who needs to cut back on work or stop working altogether.”
The data above is obtained from the National Institute of Health, which reported the gender differences of the parents’ job changes as a result of their child getting cancer. It shows that 61% of fathers cut back from their jobs, but none quit. Whereas, 86% of the mothers’ cutback on their jobs and 18% completely quit their job to care for their child. The results of this survey provide a deeper understanding of the adversity of the families of children with cancer. Cancer treatment is already expensive as it is yet many parents have to cut their jobs and also deal with the high cost of the treatment. Quitting a job does not only make it harder for parents to get money for the treatment but it also affects the healthcare coverage they are paying for. The data above is obtained from the National Institute of Health, which reported the gender differences of the parents’ job changes as a result of their child getting cancer. It shows that 61% of fathers cut back from their jobs, but none quit. Whereas, 86% of the mothers’ cutback on their jobs and 18% completely quit their job to care for their child. The results of this survey provide a deeper understanding of the adversity of the families of children with cancer. Cancer treatment is already expensive as it is yet many parents have to cut their jobs and also deal with the high cost of the treatment. Quitting a job does not only make it harder for parents to get money for the treatment but it also affects the healthcare coverage they are paying for.
The high cost of cancer treatment is mostly paid from health insurance coverage. Health coverage can be hard to deal with if a parent has to quit their job. According to the American Childhood Cancer Association, “67.3% of families with a child with cancer have health insurance through the parent’s employer. This is either canceled or changed if the parent has to quit their job.” Thus health insurance can not be of much help to the child expenses if the parent happens to quit their job. Another study published on the American Cancer Society found that the children who were uninsured had a 26% higher risk of cancer death (Fuerst, 2017).
The graph on the left highlights the survival rates of children with different types of insurances. The results show that children who are not insured, marked by the red line, have a low survival rate. Even for childhood cancer survivors, who are older, still have to deal with treatment costs, one such example is Kristi Lowry who was diagnosed with cancer at age 13. According to the Washington Post, Kristi states, “Even with insurance, she said, she pays about $12,000 a year out of pocket for medical care and prescription drugs. “It’s a huge financial burden,” she said.” (McGinley,2018). Health insurance might cover for a good portion of the cost but that does not mean that the reaming cost is not problematic for children with cancer. Thus health insurance plays a major role in the economic stability of the family as well as the survival rate of the child.
As discussed before parents have to often quit jobs and face health insurance issues. The other economic effect of childhood cancer is the annual income of the family. After such circumstances, according to the National Children’s Cancer Society, “1 in 4 families report losing more than 40% of their annual household income as a result of treatment-related work disruption—this figure doesn’t account for out-of-pocket expenses like traveling to the hospital and extra childcare at home”. Losing almost half of your annual income will have dramatic effects on families and can even lead them to fall below the poverty line. This statistic alone outlines the harsh effect of childhood cancer on the economic stability of families.
In conclusion, although the survival rate of children with cancer is high, the economic path which the children and their families have to take contains many burdens for them which include losing jobs, not getting insurance, and having a drastic annual income reduction due to the high cost of treatment. Such expenses can be reduced if the health insurance companies can provide services for a longer paid leave for the parents if their child has cancer. The emotional impact on families after discovering their child has cancer is a lot, hence any means which can reduce their financial burden through better insurance policies can be very helpful for them in coping with the situation.
