Fearing laboratory test costs, people without health insurance will likely skip needed cancer screening, giving time for cancerous cells to rapidly spread.
The society's findings come when health insurance coverage is a national issue and as states begin legislating compulsory health coverage for residents.
The study will be published in the forthcoming issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. In the journal's editorial, ACS president Dr. Elmer Huerta wrote, "The truth is that our national reluctance to face these facts is condemning thousands of people to die from cancer each year."
There are few studies that are able to link cancer with insurance since death certificates normally do not state the health insurance status of the deceased. According to data on cancer deaths in 2005 gathered by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Information, around 20,000 of 560,000 or 4 percent of Americans claimed by cancer had no health insurance.
The broad reach of insurance policies among cancer patients is due to the fact that a large number of fatal cancers are diagnosed when the patients is over 65, an age group usually covered by the federal Medicare program. Aside from that, 80 percent of Americans below 65 have some form of health coverage.
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officers of the ACS, said, "This report clearly suggests that insurance and cost-related barriers to care are critical to address if we want to ensure that all Americans are able to share in the progress we have achieved by having access to high-quality cancer prevention, early detection and treatment services."
