Rental Assistance and Health Care Access Among Low-Income Adult Cancer Survivors in the United States

By limiting household expenditures on rent and utilities and connecting individuals to health services, federal housing assistance programs could facilitate health care access among low-income cancer survivors. We examined the association between receipt of rental assistance and health care access among low-income adult cancer survivors.

We used 2019-2023 National Health Interview Survey data on adults aged ≥20 years (1) with a history of cancer diagnosis, (2) with a family income-to-poverty ratio <2, and (3) who were renters. We used propensity score weighting to address differences in observed demographic characteristics between rental assistance recipients and nonrecipients. We used logistic regression analyses to examine the associations of rental assistance receipt with outcome variables.

Lack of receipt of rental assistance was significantly associated with higher odds of delaying medical care due to cost (odds ratio [OR] = 1.90; 95% CI, 1.07-3.40) and experiencing medical financial hardship (OR = 1.85; 95% CI, 1.21-2.80), as well as lower odds of being covered by health insurance (OR = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.18).

Receipt of rental assistance may help improve health care access among low-income adult cancer survivors. Our findings are important in relation to a shortage of affordable housing in the United States and highlight the need for efforts to expand housing assistance.