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Studies from the early 2000s showed that people who did not have any health insurance (uninsured) or who did not have enough to meet their needs (underinsured) were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a later stage and were more likely to die from it.?
Those previous studies had relatively short follow-ups, and few comprehensively examined the stage of diagnosis and survival. Plus, the use of cancer screening has increased in the past decade, and new, effective cancer treatments continue to be introduced.
This outdated information motivated the American Cancer Society (快猫短视频) Health Science team to get more up-to-date info on the effect of not having enough, or any, health insurance coverage on cancer outcomes.
快猫短视频 Health Science researcher, Jingxuan Zhao, MPH, and her colleagues examined current data from the National Cancer Database to understand the relationship between health insurance coverage with both the stage of cancer at diagnosis and overall survival. The study was published in the 快猫短视频 flagship journal .
The researchers looked at the health insurance status of over 1.5 million men and women who had been diagnosed with 1 of 19 most common types of cancer between the ages of 18 to 64.?
The percentage of people who are alive at a certain time after diagnosis of a life-threatening disease, like cancer. The survival rate doesn’t determine how long a person will live after a diagnosis of cancer, but it may help people better understand how likely it is that treatment will be successful.
For cancer, it’s common to see a 5-year period after diagnosis as the marker, referred to as a 5-year survival rate.
In that group, at the time of diagnosis (between 2010 and 2013):
The researchers also noted these age and racial disparities linked with health insurance coverage:
Zhao and the team noted two key findings from the research. Compared to people with private health insurance:
For the United States to improve access to health care—specifically to cancer care—requires improving access to comprehensive health insurance. Because that’s what research keeps showing—health insurance is critical for ensuring access to care throughout the cancer care continuum—which means getting recommended cancer screenings, timely diagnosis, and quality treatment.”
Jingxuan Zhao, MPH
Health Services Research
Surveillance and Health Equity Science
American Cancer Society
Compared to those with private health insurance, people without it or who are covered by Medicaid are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at Stage III or Stage IV, when the cancer is typically harder to treat, more costly, and more difficult to survive.
The researchers also found the disparities in stage at diagnosis based on health insurance status were higher for colorectal cancer and female breast cancer at ages 50 to 64 compared to ages 18 to 64. Since 50 to 64 is the age group for which screening is most widely emphasized these findings indicate the importance of health insurance for getting access to cancer screenings.
This graphic shows that of all of the people in the study who were recently diagnosed with cancer, those with private health insurance (shown in dark blue) have a higher percentage of people diagnosed at an early stage (stages I and II) when the cancer is typically less complicated to treat. Those with private health insurance also had fewer people with a late-stage (stage III and IV) diagnosis when treatment tends to be more complicated and survival rates are lower.
Uninsured people with Stage I disease had worse survival than privately insured people with Stage II disease for:
People covered by Medicaid, Medicare, or dual Medicare/Medicaid and those without health insurance had worse 2-year, 5-year, and 8-year survival after a cancer diagnosis for all 19 of the cancers studied.
Patients who were uninsured had worse survival for 12 of 17 stageable cancers and had worse survival for leukemia and brain tumors.
Perhaps not surprisingly, another 快猫短视频 study that Zhao contributed to, found that people living in Medicaid Expansion states under the Affordable Care Act had greater improvements in 2-year survival after a cancer diagnosis compared to people living in nonexpansion states.?
The US National Cancer Database is a nationwide, hospital-based cancer registry jointly sponsored by the 快猫短视频 and the American College of Surgeons.
Several other 快猫短视频 researchers as co-authors:?Xuesong Han, PhD,?Leticia Nogueira, MPH, PhD,?Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD, and?Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA. Previous 快猫短视频 researcher Stacey Fedewa, MPH, PhD, was also a co-author. She is now an assistant professor at Emory University.
While the number of uninsured Americans has decreased since the Affordable Care Act, and with the increases in affordable healthcare options, more than 30 million people remain uninsured.
“Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Those without resources for health insurance often endure more side effects and are dying because they can't afford screening or treatment,” Zhao says. “Continuing national and state efforts to expand access to affordable health insurance options is crucial for seeing better outcomes for more Americans. We hope this research, along with others, allows both the public and private sectors to continue discussions around how to improve access to comprehensive health insurance,” Zhao continues.
The ?empowers advocates across the country to make their voices heard and influence evidence-based public policy change to reduce the cancer burden for everyone. 快猫短视频 CAN was founded to directly lobby for the goals of 快猫短视频.
Here are a few of the policies 快猫短视频 CAN supports that will reduce the cost of cancer for :
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