The improved cancer survival attributed to expanded Medicaid coverage following the enactment of the 2014 Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be traced to earlier treatment rather than screening, according to a new analysis of state-level mortality data among people who are between 20 and 64 years of age.
Building on a previous study associating the ACA with an improvement in overall survival (OS), the new study showed a 3.3% reduction (P=0.009) in metastatic cancer and a 3.5% decrease (P=0.041) in