The impact of health insurance on cancer care in disadvantaged communities

• Published in: Cancer Vol. 123; no. 7; pp. 1219 - 1227
• Main Authors: Abdelsattar, Zaid M., Hendren, Samantha, Wong, Sandra L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-04-2017
• Subjects: access; Adolescent; Adult; Breast cancer; Cancer; Census; Colorectal carcinoma; Delivery of Health Care; Epidemiology; Fatalities; Female; Geography, Medical; Hazards; Health care access; Health insurance; Health risk assessment; Humans; Income; Insurance; Insurance Coverage; Insurance, Health; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lung cancer; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Neoplasms - mortality; Oncology; outcomes; Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010-US; Patients; Population Surveillance; Poverty; Prostate cancer; Regression analysis; Residence Characteristics; Retrospective Studies; SEER Program; social determinants; Socioeconomic Factors; Surgery; Survival; Uninsured people; United States - epidemiology; Vulnerable Populations; Young Adult; insurance; social determinants; cancer; access; outcomes
• ISSN: 0008-543X; 1097-0142
• DOI: 10.1002/cncr.30431

BACKGROUND
Individuals from disadvantaged communities are among the millions of uninsured Americans gaining insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The extent to which health insurance can mitigate the effects of the social determinants of health on cancer care is unknown.
METHODS
This study linked the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries to US Census data to study patients diagnosed with the 4 leading causes of cancer deaths between 2007 and 2011. A county‐level social determinant score was developed with 5 measures of wealth, education, and employment. Patients were stratified into quintiles, with the lowest quintile representing the most disadvantaged communities. Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate associations and cancer‐specific survival.
RESULTS
A total of 364,507 patients aged 18 to 64 years were identified (134,105 with breast cancer, 106,914 with prostate cancer, 62,606 with lung cancer, and 60,882 with colorectal cancer). Overall, patients from the most disadvantaged communities (median household income, $42,885; patients below the poverty level, 22%; patients completing college, 17%) were more likely to present with distant disease (odds ratio, 1.6; P < .001) and were less likely to receive cancer‐directed surgery (odds ratio, 0.8; P < .001) than the least disadvantaged communities (median income, $78,249; patients below the poverty level, 9%; patients completing college, 42%). The differences persisted across quintiles regardless of the insurance status. The effect of having insurance on cancer‐specific survival was more pronounced in disadvantaged communities (relative benefit at 3 years, 40% vs 31%). However, it did not fully mitigate the effect of social determinants on mortality (hazard ratio, 0.75 vs 0.68; P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS
Cancer patients from disadvantaged communities benefit most from health insurance, and there is a reduction in disparities in outcome. However, the gap produced by social determinants of health cannot be bridged by insurance alone. Cancer 2017;123:1219–1227. © 2016 American Cancer Society.
Individuals from disadvantaged communities are among the millions of uninsured Americans gaining insurance under the Affordable Care Act. This study examines whether health insurance and better access to care can mitigate the effects of the social determinants of health on cancer care for the leading 4 causes of cancer deaths in the United States.