Your Insurance Status Determines Cancer Outcomes

In the U.S. most people have private insurance – at least those that can afford it – but then there is a chance of a Universal Healthcare so that everyone can have access to the best healthcare.

However, in Europe and  Canada, that is already the case and people just complain of long lines in hospitals and doctors’ clinics.

I guess it is better to wait in line, than shoulder partial or all of your healthcare bills or not having the chance for the best treatments and Specialists.

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, because either you have no health insurance, or you have one but will not cover your cancer treatments.

No kidding, that’s true!

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.

Find more details from the American Cancer Society.

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

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