The Insurance Status-Cancer Outcome Link

Filed in archive Cancer , Studies on December 20, 2007

I have always said that when you do not have enough money or have not enough insurance for health care, you'll just die of whatever disease you have before you'll be able to afford the best diagnosis and treatments.




Finally it has been reported by the American Cancer Society which found substantial evidence that lack of adequate health insurance coverage is associated with less access to care and poorer outcomes for cancer patients.

The report finds the uninsured are less likely to receive recommended cancer screening tests, are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage disease, and have lower survival rates than those with private insurance for several cancers.

The new findings on stage at diagnosis and survival by insurance status use data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB), a hospital-based registry sponsored by the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society, the only national registry that collects information on patient insurance status.

At least in the U.S. there is a chance of a Universal Healthcare. Where I am - The Philippines - if you are poor and have no health insurance, JUST PRAY that you won't be contacted by any serious disease.

No kidding, that's true!

The said report (mentioned above) appears in the January/February issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Find more details from the American Cancer Society.

[Hat tip: Paul McGee - Senior Director of Communications & Marketing for American Cancer Society]