Changes in Insurance Coverage and Stage at Diagnosis Among Nonelderly Patients With Cancer After the Affordable Care Act

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (35) ◽  
pp. 3906-3915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmedin Jemal ◽  
Chun Chieh Lin ◽  
Amy J. Davidoff ◽  
Xuesong Han
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
The Affordable Care Act

Purpose To examine change in the percent uninsured and early-stage diagnosis among nonelderly patients with newly diagnosed cancer after the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Patients and Methods By using the National Cancer Data Base, we estimated absolute change (APC) and relative change in percent uninsured among patients with newly diagnosed cancer age 18 to 64 years between 2011 to the third quarter of 2013 (pre-ACA implementation) and the second to fourth quarter of 2014 (post-ACA) in Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states by family income level. We also examined demographics-adjusted difference in differences in APC between Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states. We similarly examined changes in insurance and early-stage diagnosis for the 15 leading cancers in men and women (top 17 cancers total). Results Between the pre-ACA and post-ACA periods, percent uninsured among patients with newly diagnosed cancer decreased in all income categories in both Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states. However, the decrease was largest in low-income patients who resided in expansion states (9.6% to 3.6%; APC, −6.0%; 95% CI, −6.5% to −5.5%) versus their counterparts who resided in nonexpansion states (14.7% to 13.3%; APC, −1.4%; 95% CI, −2.0% to −0.7%), with an adjusted difference in differences of −3.3 (95% CI, −4.0 to −2.5). By cancer type, the largest decrease in percent uninsured occurred in patients with smoking- or infection-related cancers. A small but statistically significant shift was found toward early-stage diagnosis for colorectal, lung, female breast, and pancreatic cancer and melanoma in patients who resided in expansion states. Conclusion Percent uninsured among nonelderly patients with newly diagnosed cancer declined substantially after the ACA, especially among low-income people who resided in Medicaid expansion states. A trend toward early-stage diagnosis for select cancers in expansion states also was found. These results reinforce the importance of policies directed at providing affordable coverage to low-income, vulnerable populations.

Association between Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and survival among newly diagnosed cancer patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1502-1502
Author(s):  
Xuesong Han ◽  
Jingxuan Zhao ◽  
Robin Robin Yabroff ◽  
Christopher J. Johnson ◽  
Ahmedin Jemal
Keyword(s):  
Overall Survival ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Cancer Site ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
One Year ◽  
Cause Specific Survival

1502 Background: Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is associated with increased insurance coverage and early stage at diagnosis among patients with cancer. Whether these gains translate to improved survival is largely unknown, however. This study examines changes in one-year survival rates among persons newly diagnosed with cancer following the ACA Medicaid expansion. Methods: Patients aged 18-62 years from 41 population-based state cancer registries diagnosed pre-(2010-2012) and post-(2014-2016) ACA Medicaid expansion were followed through October 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016, respectively. Difference-in-differences (DD) analysis was conducted to estimate changes in one-year overall and cause-specific survival rates associated with Medicaid expansion, adjusting for age group, sex, race/ethnicity, area-level poverty, urban/rural status and region. Stratified analysis was conducted by cancer type, sex and area-level poverty. Results: A total of 2,537,818 patients diagnosed with cancer were included from Medicaid expansion (N = 1,492,729) and non-expansion (N = 1,045,089) states. During follow-up, 291,854 patients died including 246,660 deaths from cancer. The one-year overall survival rate (%) increased from 88.1 pre-ACA to 89.1 post-ACA in Medicaid expansion states and from 85.6 to 86.4 in non-expansion states for both sexes combined, resulting in a net increase of 0.4 (95%CI = 0.3-0.6) in expansion states after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. By cancer site and for both sexes combined, the increase in adjusted one-year overall survival in expansion states versus non-expansion states was greater for cancers of lung (DD = 1.6; 95%CI = 0.8-2.5), pancreas (DD = 2.2; 95%CI = 0.5-3.9) and liver (DD = 3.4; 95%CI = 1.7-5.1); as were the increases for cervix (DD = 1.3; 95%CI = 0.1-2.5), melanoma (DD = 0.4;95%CI = 0.04-0.9), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DD = 1.2; 95%CI = 0.1-2.2) and esophagus (DD = 7.1; 95%CI = 0.5-13.7) among women. The improvement in one-year overall survival was larger among patients residing in the poorest areas (DD = 0.7; 95%CI = 0.3-1.1) compared to those in the richest areas (DD = 0.2; 95%CI = -0.2 to 0.5), leading to a narrowing survival disparity by area-level poverty. Patterns in one-year cause-specific survival were similar. Conclusions: Medicaid expansion was associated with greater increase in one-year overall survival rates, largely driven by the improvements in survival for cancer types with poor prognosis, suggesting improved access to timely and effective treatments. Furthermore, the increase was largest in poorest areas, highlighting the promising role of Medicaid expansion in reducing health disparities. Future studies should monitor changes in longer-term health outcomes following the ACA.

scholarly journals The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion and Smoking Cessation Among Low-Income Smokers

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. e203-e210 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Travis Donahoe ◽  
Edward C. Norton ◽  
Michael R. Elliott ◽  
Andrea R. Titus ◽  
Lucie Kalousová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
The Affordable Care Act

Breast Cancer Stage at Presentation in Ohio: The Effect of Medicaid Expansion and the Affordable Care Act

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-199
Author(s):  
Dan Kirkpatrick ◽  
Margaret Dunn ◽  
Rebecca Tuttle
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Advanced Disease ◽  
Disease Stage ◽  
Cancer Stage ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
The Impact

Patients presenting with localized breast cancer have a five-year survival of 99 per cent, whereas survival falls to 27 per cent in advanced disease. This obviates the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Our study evaluates the impact of Ohio's Medicaid expansion and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the stage at which Ohioans were diagnosed with breast cancer. Data were collected for 3056 patients presenting with breast cancer between 2006 and 2016 in the Dayton area. Patients were divided into groups based on cancer stage. The percentage of patients presenting with advanced disease (stage 3 or 4) was compared both before and after ACA implementation and Ohio Medicaid expansion. These results were also compared with statewide data maintained by the Ohio Department of Health. Compared with pre-ACA, the number of uninsured patients post-ACA was noted to fall 83 per cent, the number of patients presenting with Medicaid increased by five times, and the proportion of patients younger than 65 years presenting with breast cancer increased by approximately 7 per cent. These changes notwithstanding, no difference was identified in the percentage of patients presenting with advanced breast cancer before and after ACA implementation or Ohio Medicaid expansion ( P = 0.56). Statewide data similarly demonstrated no change ( P = 0.88). Improved insurance access had a smaller-than-anticipated impact on the stage at which Ohioans presented with breast cancer. As significant morbidity and mortality can be avoided by earlier presentation, additional research is appropriate to identify factors affecting patients’ decision to seek breast cancer screening and care.

scholarly journals 4498 The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on the Stage at Diagnosis in Low income Privately Insured Cancer Patients, including those with Marketplace coverage

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
pp. 147-147
Author(s):  
Uriel Kim ◽  
Siran Koroukian ◽  
Johnie Rose
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Metastatic Disease ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Census Tract ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Study Population ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
Privately Insured

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of this study was to examine the change in the odds of being diagnosed with metastatic cancer after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) among low-income, privately insured, nonelderly patients with newly diagnosed cancer. Low-income was defined as having income<250% FPL (federal poverty level). METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Using Ohio cancer registry data linked with census tract-level income data, individuals aged 18-64 years diagnosed with one of the 15 leading cancers and reported being privately insured or uninsured were identified. Low-income patients were isolated using probability weighting, a process in which each observation was assigned a weight equal to the probability of a patient having an income <250% FPL based on the patient’s census tract of residence. Then, a multivariable logistic model was fitted to examine the independent association between the exposure (Post-ACA, years 2015-2016 versus Pre-ACA, years 2012-2013) and the outcome (metastatic versus non-metastatic disease at diagnosis). RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Between the Pre-ACA and Post-ACA periods, the percent uninsured in the low-income study population decreased from 14.1% to 4.5% (p <0.01). In the Post-ACA period, among those with insurance coverage, an estimated 11.7% of individuals had Marketplace coverage. After adjusting for potential confounders (sex, age, race-ethnicity, marital status, community-level income, rurality, and cancer type), individuals diagnosed Post-ACA had 5% lower odds of having metastatic disease relative to Pre-ACA (Adjusted Odds Ratio: 0.95, 95% Confidence Interval: 0.91 - 0.99, p = 0.04). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The shift towards non-metastatic disease likely reflects increases to coverage brought on by the marketplaces. However, the shift is smaller than those observed in Medicaid enrollees, suggesting that policy refinements in the marketplaces can further improve outcomes in low-income cancer patients.

Changes in cancer mortality rates after the adoption of the Affordable Care Act.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 2003-2003
Author(s):  
Anna Lee ◽  
Kanan Shah ◽  
Junzo P. Chino ◽  
Fumiko Chino
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Mortality Benefit ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Black Patients ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Affordable Care Act

2003 Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to improve health status in the US primarily through improving access to health insurance. As adoption of Medicaid expansion varied at the state level, this study aims to compare cancer mortality rates over time between states who did (EXP) and did not adopt (NonEXP) Medicaid expansion. Methods: Age-adjusted mortality rates per 100,000 were gathered from the National Center for Health Statistics from 1999-2017 to establish trends. Only deaths due to cancer in patients less than 65 were included. Absolute change in cancer mortality was calculated from 2011-2013 and then from 2015-2017 with 2014 as washout year. Changes within subpopulations (gender, race, ethnicity) were also assessed. Mortality changes between EXP and NonEXP groups were via “difference in differences” analysis. Results: Overall age-adjusted cancer mortality in the US fell from 1999-2017 from 66.9 to 48.8 per 100,000. EXP states had higher population (157 vs 118 million) with less black/African Americans (19.2 vs 21.8 million) and more Hispanics (33.0 vs 21.7 million) than NonEXP states (all examples from 2017). The overall age-adjusted cancer mortality was consistently worse in NonEXP states, cancer mortality fell from 64.7 to 46.0 per 100,000 in EXP states and from 69.0 to 51.9 per 100,000 in NonEXP states from 1999-2017 (both trends p < 0.001, comparison p < 0.001). Comparing the mortality changes in the peri-ACA years (2011-2013 vs 2015-2017) between the 2 cohorts, the difference in differences between EXP and NonEXP states was -1.1 and -0.6 per 100,000 respectively (p = 0.006 EXP, p = 0.14 NonEXP). The estimated overall cancer mortality benefit gained in EXP states after Medicaid expansion (∆∆∆) is -0.5 per 100,000 (p = NS). In EXP states, this translates to an estimated 785 less cancer deaths in 2017. Age-adjusted cancer mortality per 100,000 was worse in NonEXP states for black patients (58.5 EXP vs 63.4 NonEXP in 2017) however there was no differential mortality benefit after ACA expansion when comparing between the peri-ACA years. Of the subpopulations assessed, Hispanics in EXP states had the highest differential cancer mortality benefit at -2.1 per 100,000 (p = 0.07). Conclusions: This is the first study to show a directly measured cancer survival benefit from the ACA on a national scale using a comprehensive database. Hispanic populations appear to have the highest differential cancer mortality benefit after Medicaid expansion. Further study is needed to elucidate why other populations like black patients did not appear to reap the same mortality decrease.

The Effect of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion on Disparities in Access to Care and Health Status

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunjung Lee ◽  
Frank W. Porell
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Access To Care ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Behavioral Risk ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Before the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, nonelderly childless adults were not generally eligible for Medicaid regardless of their income, and Hispanics had much higher uninsured rates than other racial/ethnic subgroups. We estimated difference-in-differences models on Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance data (2011-2016) to estimate the impacts of Medicaid expansion on racial/ethnic disparities in insurance coverage, access to care, and health status in this vulnerable subpopulation. Uninsured rates among all poor childless adults declined by roughly 9 percentage points more in states that expanded Medicaid. While expansion also had favorable impacts on most access and health outcomes among Whites in expansion states, there were relatively few such impacts among Blacks and Hispanics. Through 2016, Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion was more effective in improving access and health outcomes among White low-income childless adults than mitigating racial/ethnic disparities.

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