Poor Cancer Outcomes Among the Uninsured and those on Medicaid

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, examined national statistics for the period between 2007 to 2010 for people aged 18-64 of age.

A new U.S. study finds that cancer patients who don't have insurance -- or who get it through the federal health insurance program for the poor (Medicaid) -- are at much higher risk of poor medical outcomes than other people.

They're more likely to have advanced cancer when they're diagnosed, less likely to be treated with surgery or radiation and more likely to die of their disease, researchers report.

The findings don't explain the discrepancies, and they don't say anything about how health care reform might change the fates of poor patients with cancer. Still, they offer a worrisome picture of the American health care system in the years right before the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as some call it, was passed.

"We were surprised to find that patients without insurance were twice as likely as those with insurance to present with cancer that's spread from the place where it first started," said study author Dr. Gary Walker, a radiation oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer in Houston. "Even when adjusting for many different factors, patients were still more likely to die if they had Medicaid coverage or no insurance."

Original report: http://bit.ly/Vg6kVD

Source: US News

Related Videos
Nicolas Ferreyros, BA, managing director, The Community Oncology Alliance
Susan Sabo-Wagner, MSN, RN, OCN, Oncology Consultants
Samyukta Mullangi, MD, MBA.
Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD, MBA.
Jeff Hunnicutt, CEO, Highlands Oncology Group
Sigrun Hallmeyer, MD, Advocate Health
Kevin Davies, PhD, Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
Andre Harvin, PharmD, MS, MBA, Cone Health Cancer Center
Samyukta Mullangi, MD, MBA.
Olalekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA, 2023-2024 ACCC president-elect
Related Content
© 2023 MJH Life Sciences
AJMC®
All rights reserved.