Uninsured and Medicaid-insured Patients Frequently Diagnosed with Advanced Stages of Cancer

Uninsured and Medicaid-insured Patients Frequently Diagnosed with Advanced Stages of Cancer
CancerConsultants.com - News 2/25/2008Individuals without private insurance frequently have advanced stages of cancer at the time of diagnosis. These findings were recently published in the Lancet.
Access to medical care in the United States is often limited by individual insurance status. Those without private insurance are less likely to have access to medical care and to participate in cancer screening programs. As well, previous studies have suggested that uninsured and Medicaid-insured individuals are more likely to seek medical attention after their cancer has progressed to an advanced stage. In this current study, national level data were used to verify these findings and determine how ethnic minorities, who are less likely to be privately insured, may be impacted.
Once an individual is diagnosed with cancer, the physician will determine what stage of cancer the patient has. The stage is a grading scale of I–IV (early to advanced). Stage of cancer is determined by factors including whether or not the cancer has spread beyond its original site to other sites in the body.
Information about 3,742,407 patients diagnosed with cancer between 1998 and 2004 was gathered from the United States National Cancer Database. This database contains patient information collected from approximately 1,430 hospitals nationwide. Researchers evaluated insurance status, ethnicity, and disease stage among 12 different types of cancer (breast, colon or rectal, kidney, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, bladder, uterine, thyroid, lymphoma, and melanoma.
Uninsured and Medicaid-insured individuals were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer when compared with privately insured patients.
These findings were most commonly noted among patients who had cancers that could have potentially been detected by cancer screening or by the patient had they received education about symptoms of various cancers.
Differences among ethnic groups were also noted: despite insurance status, African-American and Hispanic patients were found to have an increased risk of advanced-stage cancer diagnoses when compared with White patients.
Although many factors may impact quality of healthcare in the United States, ethnic minorities, the uninsured, and those insured by Medicaid are at significant risk of not receiving treatment until their cancer has reached an advanced stage. Adequate insurance appears to be an important factor in receiving timely and appropriate screening, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
Reference: Halpern, M., Ward, E., Pavluck, A., et al. Association of insurance status and ethnicity with cancer stage at diagnosis for 12 cancer sites: a retrospective analysis. Lancet. 2008: doi10.1016/S1470-2045(08)70032-9.
Related News: Insurance Status Influences Stage at Diagnosis of Breast and Oropharyngeal Cancers (7/30/2007)