quote:

According to the results of two studies published in the journal Cancer, patients who have no health insurance or limited health insurance tend to be diagnosed with more advanced stages of breast and oropharyngeal cancer.

An estimated 20% of Americans under the age of 65 lack health insurance and many others have only limited insurance. A lack of health insurance has been linked with less access to preventive care, less timely receipt of care, and a lower likelihood of receiving recommended treatments.

Researchers involved with the oropharyngeal study looked at over 40,000 individuals who were reported to the National Cancer Data Base between 1996 and 2003. They reported that uninsured patients and patients on Medicaid were roughly 30% more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease than privately insured patients.[2]

The results confirm that lack of adequate health insurance can have important adverse effects on health. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Richard Wender of the American Cancer Society and Thomas Jefferson University writes “Clearly, the issues of adequacy, availability, and affordability of coverage are serious problems that must be addressed collectively as we work to fix what is wrong with our health care system.”