WEDNESDAY, June 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) — People with medical debt are less likely to survive a cancer attack, a new study reports.
Researchers found that US counties with more residents paying off medical debt also had more deaths from cancer than counties with lower medical debt.
“This association was seen across all cancers combined and across five major cancer types (lung, colorectal, pancreatic, prostate and pancreatic in men and breast in women),” said the senior investigator. said. Han Shu-sung Scientific Director of Health Services Research at the American Cancer Society.
Han presented the study Tuesday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. Findings presented at medical conferences should be considered preliminary pending publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
In the study, Han and colleagues compared 2018 county-level medical debt data from the Urban Institute with 2015-2019 cancer death data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Researchers have found that about 20% of the total US population has some form of medical debt. The county-level percentage of the population with medical debt varied from 0% to nearly 54%.
“Southern counties had the highest health care debt. For example, of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of health care debt recovery per capita, eight were in Texas, two were in North Carolina, and one was in Georgia. said Han. “Southern states also have the highest death rates from cancer.”
The researchers found that a 1 percent increase in population in a county with medical debt was associated with a 1.12 increase in cancer mortality per 100,000 person-years. (Person-years is a measure that takes into account both the number of people who participated in the study and the time each person spent on the study.)
The research team also took a closer look at about 1,950 counties that report accurate medical debt figures. They found that for every $100 increase in average debt, the cancer mortality rate increased by 0.86 per 100,000 person-years.
Counties with the highest medical debt tend to be rural, with residents who are poorer, less educated, uninsured and unemployed, Han said. There was also a high proportion of black residents.
“I think this is really a problem,” he said. Dr. William Dahat, Chief Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society. “As you can see, things got even worse in rural areas and in certain racial/ethnic minority populations. This will further exacerbate health disparities in health outcomes, as it will be lower.”
Han said medical debt can have different effects on your chances of surviving cancer.
“People with medical debt are more likely to abandon or delay care, including preventive care such as cancer screening, cancer treatment, follow-up, and survivor assistance. may increase cancer mortality,” Han said.
“Additionally, research shows that medical debt can negatively impact other aspects of life, such as increased food and housing insecurity, which can impact patient health and increase mortality risk.” added Han.
Dahat agreed that people with high medical debt are very likely to suffer financially and not get the cancer care they need.
“Once medical debt starts to accumulate, people may stop getting treatment because they don’t want more medical debt,” Dahat said. “Some situations may simply not be able to afford treatment due to out-of-pocket costs or other reasons. yeah.”
Debt-ridden cancer patients may choose to withdraw treatment for their families, he added.
“I think people are concerned about that a lot,” Dahat said. “They have been diagnosed with cancer, but they don’t want their families to suffer because of their cancer diagnosis.”
Duhut said the Affordable Care Act, especially the expansion of Medicaid, should help reduce health care debt and improve people’s chances of survival.
“States that get through Medicaid expansion actually have higher overall survival rates,” Dahat said. “Better coverage for the entire patient population would certainly change mortality rates.”
Han suggested that cancer patients should also take advantage of health system programs that provide financial assistance to those in need.
It “could help mitigate the impact of health care debt on worsening cancer outcomes,” she says.
For more information
At the Sycamore Institute, Effects of medical debt on health.
Source: Xuesong Han, Ph.D., Scientific Director, Division of Health Services Research, American Cancer Society.William Dahat, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer, American Cancer Society
