WASHINGTON, May 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US states which expanded Medicaid
insurance coverage to low-income adults as part of Barack Obama’s signature
healthcare law saw a marked increase in colorectal cancer screening, a new
study said Wednesday.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed excluding skin
cancers, according to the American Cancer Society, and its rates have been
growing among younger people in recent years for reasons that are unclear.
The paper, which appeared in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine,
estimated that if so-called non-expansion states had experienced the same
increase in screening that was recorded in early adopter states, an
additional 355,184 people would have been covered.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare,” was enacted in
2010 and provided federal support for states to expand Medicaid insurance
coverage to low-income adults.
Five states and the District of Columbia were very early adopters and
expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2010-2011.
An additional 21 expanded their programs in 2014, five more between 2015
and 2016, while 19 chose not to expand their coverage.
Lead researcher Stacey Fedewa at the American Cancer Society examined
screening patterns among low-income adults in all states using a telephone
survey supervised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in
2012, 2014 and 2016.
They found that between 2012 and 2016, the proportion of low-income adults
aged 50 to 64 who were up-to-date with screening grew by 8.8 percentage
points in very early adopters against 3.8 percentage points in non-expansion
states.
“Health insurance is a strong predictor of cancer screening, and the
uninsured and those with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be
diagnosed at late stage and die from screen-detectable cancers, including
colorectal cancer,” said Fedewa.