scholarly journals Has the Affordable Care Act Been Associated with Increased Insurance Coverage and Early-stage Diagnoses of Bone and Soft-tissue Sarcomas in Adults?

2020 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Azeem Tariq Malik ◽  
John Alexander ◽  
Safdar N. Khan ◽  
Thomas J. Scharschmidt
2021 ◽  
pp. 107755872110158
Author(s):  
Priyanka Anand ◽  
Dora Gicheva

This article examines how the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions affected the sources of health insurance coverage of undergraduate students in the United States. We show that the Affordable Care Act expansions increased the Medicaid coverage of undergraduate students by 5 to 7 percentage points more in expansion states than in nonexpansion states, resulting in 17% of undergraduate students in expansion states being covered by Medicaid postexpansion (up from 9% prior to the expansion). In contrast, the growth in employer and private direct coverage was 1 to 2 percentage points lower postexpansion for students in expansion states compared with nonexpansion states. Our findings demonstrate that policy efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility have been successful in increasing the Medicaid coverage rates for undergraduate students in the United States, but there is evidence of some crowd out after the expansions—that is, some students substituted their private and employer-sponsored coverage for Medicaid.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 307-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Courtemanche ◽  
James Marton ◽  
Benjamin Ukert ◽  
Aaron Yelowitz ◽  
Daniela Zapata ◽  
...  

Medical Care ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximiliane Hoerl ◽  
Amelie Wuppermann ◽  
Silvia H. Barcellos ◽  
Sebastian Bauhoff ◽  
Joachim K. Winter ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Roulleaux Dugage ◽  
Elise F. Nassif ◽  
Antoine Italiano ◽  
Rastislav Bahleda

Anti-PD-(L)1 therapies yield a disappointing response rate of 15% across soft-tissue sarcomas, even if some subtypes benefit more than others. The proportions of TAMs and TILs in their tumor microenvironment are variable, and this heterogeneity correlates to histotype. Tumors with a richer CD8+ T cell, M1 macrophage, and CD20+ cells infiltrate have a better prognosis than those infiltrated by M0/M2 macrophages and a high immune checkpoint protein expression. PD-L1 and CD8+ infiltrate seem correlated to response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), but tertiary lymphoid structures have the best predictive value and have been validated prospectively. Trials for combination therapies are ongoing and focus on the association of ICI with chemotherapy, achieving encouraging results especially with pembrolizumab and doxorubicin at an early stage, or ICI with antiangiogenics. A synergy with oncolytic viruses is seen and intratumoral talimogene laherpavec yields an impressive 35% ORR when associated to pembrolizumab. Adoptive cellular therapies are also of great interest in tumors with a high expression of cancer-testis antigens (CTA), such as synovial sarcomas or myxoid round cell liposarcomas with an ORR ranging from 20 to 50%. It seems crucial to adapt the design of clinical trials to histology. Leiomyosarcomas are characterized by complex genomics but are poorly infiltrated by immune cells and do not benefit from ICI. They should be tested with PIK3CA/AKT inhibition, IDO blockade, or treatments aiming at increasing antigenicity (radiotherapy, PARP inhibitors). DDLPS are more infiltrated and have higher PD-L1 expression, but responses to ICI remain variable across clinical studies. Combinations with MDM2 antagonists or CDK4/6 inhibitors may improve responses for DDLPS. UPS harbor the highest copy number alterations (CNA) and mutation rates, with a rich immune infiltrate containing TLS. They have a promising 15-40% ORR to ICI. Trials for ICB should focus on immune-high UPS. Association of ICI with FGFR inhibitors warrants further exploration in the immune-low group of UPS. Finally translocation-related sarcomas are heterogeneous, and although synovial sarcomas a poorly infiltrated and have a poor response rate to ICI, ASPS largely benefit from ICB monotherapy or its association with antiangiogenics agents. Targeting specific neoantigens through vaccine or adoptive cellular therapies is probably the most promising approach in synovial sarcomas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e18543-e18543
Author(s):  
Matthew Buck ◽  
Patrick C Demkowicz ◽  
James Nie ◽  
Victoria A. Marks ◽  
Michelle C. Salazar ◽  
...  

e18543 Background: Although Medicaid expansions associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly increased insurance coverage for Americans with cancer, there is evidence that some facilities limit the number of Medicaid patients they treat due to lower reimbursement. We aimed to assess facility-level changes in the proportion of patients with Medicaid who were diagnosed with cancer in relation to Medicaid expansions associated with the ACA. Methods: We identified adult patients with the 19 most commonly diagnosed cancers using the National Cancer Database who were diagnosed with cancer from 2010 through 2017. We clustered Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredited institutions and included those diagnosing at least 10 patients in each year. The primary study endpoint was the change in the proportion of Medicaid-insured individuals relative to the implementation of the ACA (pre- and post-Jan 1, 2014). We used adjusted difference-in-differences (DID) estimation and multivariable logistic regression to examine patient and facility-level factors associated with changes in the proportion of Medicaid insured individuals. Results: We identified 1,064 eligible facilities in the study period. There were considerable changes in the share of Medicaid insured patients at the facility-level (range -20.0% to +44.7%, IQR -0.64% to +5.63%). There were significantly larger changes in facilities located in Medicaid expansion states (11.5 to 16.5% percentage points) versus non-expansion states (9.2 to 8.9% percentage points) with adjusted DID +5.79% (p < 0.001). Despite overall increases, 14.6% of facilities in expansion states experienced reductions in their share of Medicaid insured patients. Facility factors associated with decreasing share of Medicaid patients were non-expansion status (OR: 6.25, 95% CI 3.89 – 9.98, p < 0.001) and higher baseline Medicaid population (OR: 2.93, 95% CI 2.00 – 4.35, p < 0.001). There was also significant regional variation with larger decreases in the West South Central (OR: 5.86, 95% CI 2.30 – 15.74, p < 0.001) and West North Central (OR: 2.46, 95% CI 1.07 – 5.87, p = 0.037) regions. Conclusions: Although state expansions associated with the ACA led to increases in the share of Medicaid-insured patients diagnosed with cancer at CoC facilities, there was considerable variation in changes at the facility-level. These findings highlight that improved insurance coverage may not be sufficient to improve access to care, and facility-level policies may remain a source of access disparity.


HPHR Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. Sommers ◽  

The first open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act has come and gone. One might be tempted to ask, “How has the law done so far?” — if only that question hadn’t already been asked ad nauseum since the first week of open enrollment in October 2013. As a researcher whose primary interests are insurance coverage and access to care (and as an advisor in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), I have frequently been asked this question – by students, by friends and family, and by reporters. Consider this my response.


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