Medicaid expansion, chemotherapy delays, and racial disparities among women with early-stage breast cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act extends eligibility for participating states and has been associated with improved outcomes by facilitating access to care. Delayed initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy is associated with worse outcomes among patients with early-stage breast cancer (BC). The impact of Medicaid expansion in narrowing delays by race and ethnicity has not been studied, to our knowledge.

Methods

This was a population-based study using the National Cancer Database. Patients diagnosed with primary early-stage BC between 2007 and 2017 residing in states that underwent Medicaid expansion in January 2014 were included. Time to chemotherapy initiation and proportion of patients experiencing chemotherapy delays (>60 days) were evaluated using d

SUBMITTER: Chavez-MacGregor M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10248833 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature