Expansion of Medicaid eliminated the disparity in survival between racial and ethnic minority women and White women after diagnosis of de novo stage IV breast cancer. In 19 states, two-year survival was 64 percent for White women and 56 percent for minority women before Medicaid expansion and about 71-72 percent for all women after Medicaid expansion in 2014.
“Policies aimed at improving equity and increasing access to health care may reduce racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer outcomes,” wrote researcher Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD (above), of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
- See “Medicaid expansion reduces racial disparities” by Will Morton on the AuntMinnie website (April 7, 2022)
- See the abstract of the scientific paper “Association of Medicaid Expansion With Mortality Disparity by Race and Ethnicity Among Patients With De Novo Stage IV Breast Cancer” by Catalina Malinowski et al.
