Patrick McDonald Source 1

Has the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had an impact on childhood cancer survivors?

Mueller, Emily, L, Elyse, R Park, and Matthew, M Davis. "What The Affordable Care Act Means For Survivors Of Pediatric Cancer."Journal Of Clinical Oncology 32.7 (2014): 615-617. CINAHL. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.

This article talks about how the Affordable Care Act will be beneficial for people who have or had childhood cancer. It is saying mostly that a lot of people who had childhood cancer could not receive proper healthcare to be able to get necessary check-ups. Less than half of adults that had childhood cancer have gotten a cancer related checkup in the past two years. The article says that up to 29% of pediatric cancer survivors had trouble getting health insurance while only 3% of their siblings had those difficulties. With the ACA, people cannot be refused healthcare because of a preexisting condition. Therefore, many of the people who could not get healthcare before now have an affordable option. The text also discussed what else needs to happen for the ACA to help more survivors. It said that even though survivors can now have insurance, checkup costs may still cost a lot. People that survived childhood cancer are recommended to get a checkup scan every 1-2 years. This may not be possible if costs remain high and people may opt to not get coverage.

I have narrowed my broad topic down to how the ACA affects people who have and had cancer. This article taught me the possibilities of how the ACA can give people who were not eligible for healthcare the option for covered. I think that aspect is a very big positive for the act. People who had cancer before they had healthcare can now receive coverage for needed checkups. I agree with the article that it is important to get the cost of the checkups down. So far, I think that the ACA is definitely a positive for cancer survivors. I am now even more interested in its impact on people who currently have cancer. As far as answering the question at the top, I feel like that the ACA has had an impact on childhood cancer survivors. I need to find an article with some more up to date facts to see how it has played out.

This article has led me to ask how it has affected people who currently have cancer. Hopefully, the act will continue to do what it has promised. I also want to find some more information on childhood cancer survivors. Right now I know that the ACA has given survivors an opportunity to get coverage, but not all of them are taking advantage of it because there are still high costs.