Government
ACA predicted to enable millions of key cancer screenings
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 10, 2012
Low-income women would benefit from greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings if the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services conclude.
This could lead to earlier detection of breast and cervical cancer, said Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, a professor of health policy and lead author of the study. Ku indicated that such improvements would follow a decade of stagnating cancer screening rates among women.
The researchers used a model based on Massachusetts’ health reform efforts to estimate how many women in each state would obtain coverage under full reform implementation. According to their findings, nearly 7 million low-income women ages 18 to 64 would gain insurance that covered screenings. In other estimates, the researchers suggested that a half-million more women a year would have access to mammograms, and 1.3 million additional women could get Pap tests.
“Even so, 4.5 million low-income women will remain uninsured and could have great difficulty affording cancer screening costs on their own,” according to the researchers. These women may need additional assistance from a federal program that offers screening and referrals for follow-up care to poor, uninsured women, they said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/12/10/gvbf1210.htm.
