More advanced cancer seen in uninsured Americans

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uninsured Americans and those in a government health program for the poor are far more likely to have advanced diseases when diagnosed with cancer than those with private coverage, researchers said on Sunday.

A major factor seems to be that many of these people are not getting routine screenings for various types of cancer that could detect the disease in its early stages when it is most treatable and least deadly, according to the researchers.

Led by Dr. Michael Halpern of the American Cancer Society, the team examined data on 3.7 million Americans diagnosed with 12 common types of cancer between 1998 and 2004.

The uninsured were 2.1 times as likely and those covered by Medicaid 80 percent more likely to have advanced-stage cancer at the time of their first cancer diagnoses compared with those with private health insurance.

The study published in the medical journal Lancet Oncology also showed blacks and to a lesser extent Hispanics, regardless of insurance status, were more likely than whites to have advanced cancer when first diagnosed.

The government estimates there are 47 million people without health insurance in a country of about 300 million people. Health care is a prominent issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.

"We consistently found across a wide variety of cancers that uninsured individuals and those covered by Medicaid were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease," Halpern said in a telephone interview.

"And this was especially true for the cancers that could be diagnosed early by screening, like colorectal cancer, or have symptoms early in disease like bladder cancer," Halpern added.