Giving Compass' Take:

• Rachel Tompa reports on the results of a study that found that childhood survivors of cancer faced high health insurance costs later in life before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. 

• What does this mean for future health care policy changes? How can philanthropy support childhood cancer survivors throughout their lives? 

• Learn about ways to reach universal healthcare. 

A study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine adds more data around a group affected by access to health insurance coverage: adult survivors of childhood cancer.

The study looked at the insurance status and health care costs of these survivors right before the Affordable Care Act was fully implemented.

Adult survivors of childhood cancer were denied health care coverage more often than their cancer-free siblings, paid more out-of-pocket for their health care, were more likely to borrow money due to health care costs and were more prone to skip filling necessary prescriptions due to their price, the study saw.

The study highlights the financial burden this particular population — childhood cancer survivors — faces in their adult lives and how their health insurance status affects that burden.

The study focused on health insurance, but for adult survivors of childhood cancers, many factors combine to form the constellation of health care cost burdens known as “financial toxicity,” said Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center biostatistician Dr. Wendy Leisenring, a co-author on the insurance study and lead statistician for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, or CCSS.

Read the full article about childhood cancer survivors by Rachel Tompa at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.