Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as
those with private coverage, according to the first national study of its kind
and one that sheds light on troubling health care obstacles.

People without health
insurance are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests, the study
also found, confirming earlier research. And when these patients finally do get
diagnosed, their cancer is likely to have
spread.

The research by
scientists with the American Cancer Society offers important context for the
national discussion about health care reform, experts say – even though the
uninsured are believed to account for just a fraction of US cancer deaths. An
Associated Press analysis suggests it is around 4%. Those dealing with cancer
and inadequate insurance weren’t surprised by the
findings.

"I would just like
for something to be done to help someone else, so they don’t have to go through
what we went through," said Peggy Hicks, a Florida woman whose husband died in
August from colon cancer. Edward Hicks was uninsured, and a patchwork health
care system delayed him from getting chemotherapy that some argue might have
extended his life.

"He was so
ill. And you’re trying to get him help and you can’t, you can’t," said his
67-year-old widow. The new research is being published in CA: A Cancer Journal
for Clinicians, a cancer society publication. In an accompanying editorial, the
society’s president repeated the organization’s call for action to fix holes in
the health care safety
net.

"The truth is that our
national reluctance to face these facts is condemning thousands of people to die
from cancer each year," Dr Elmer Huerta wrote. Hard numbers linking insurance
status and cancer deaths are scarce, in part because death certificates don’t
say whether those who died were
insured.

An Associated Press
estimate – based on hospital cancer deaths in 2005 gathered by the US Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality information and other data – suggests that at
least 20,000 of the nation’s 560,000 annual cancer deaths are uninsured when
they die.

Via Times of India