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Study finds uninsured cancer patients more likely to die in 5 years than those with private coverage
By Mike Stobbe
Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
ATLANTA: Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage, according to the first national study of its kind and one that sheds light on troubling medical care obstacles.
People without insurance are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests, the study found, confirming earlier research. And when these patients finally do get diagnosed, their cancer is likely to have spread.
The new research, analyzing information from 1,500 U.S. hospitals that provide cancer care, is being published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The research, gathered by the American Cancer Society, offers context for the national discussion about health-care reform, experts say — even though the uninsured are believed to account for just a fraction of U.S. cancer deaths. An Associated Press analysis suggests it is around 4 percent.
The findings didn't surprise those dealing with cancer and inadequate insurance.
''I would just like for something to be done to help someone else, so they don't have to go through what we went through,'' said Peggy Hicks, a Florida woman whose husband died in August from colon cancer.
Edward Hicks was uninsured, and a patchwork health-care system delayed him from getting chemotherapy that some argue might have extended his life.
''He was so ill. And you're trying to get him help, and you can't, you can't,'' said his 67-year-old widow.
Hard numbers linking insurance status and cancer deaths are scarce, in part because death certificates don't say whether those who died were insured.
An Associated Press estimate — based on statistics on hospital cancer deaths in 2005 gathered by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality information and other data — suggests at least 20,000 of the nation's 560,000 cancer deaths a year are of uninsured patients.
Experts said that estimate sounds reasonable. That's around 4 percent of the total cancer death toll.
One reason is that most fatal cancers occur in people 65 or older — an age group covered by the federal Medicare program. Another is that more than 80 percent of adults younger than 65 have some form of coverage, such as private insurance or the Medicaid program for the poor, various estimates say.
ATLANTA: Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage, according to the first national study of its kind and one that sheds light on troubling medical care obstacles.
Get the full article here.
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