- Mar 2019
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www.fightcancer.org www.fightcancer.org
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will have the net effect of shifting health insurance costs to low and middle-income patients, significantly reduce the standards of what constitutes quality insurance, curtail the Medicaid expansion and over time substantially reduce over-all Medicaid funding.
The erosion of medicaid program coverage is what we can see in the horizon under these shifts. Reductions in standards of care, quality assurance and government accountability for public health will inevitable lead to the negligence of service availability for low income and high risk populations. The benefit of these changes will be seen mainly among private interest sectors that have customarily re allocated funds from safety net programs into state budget spending.
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Moreover, reduced federal funding combined with state-specific eligibility and enrollment restrictions will likely result in fewer cancer patients accessing needed health care. For low-income individuals these changes could be the difference between an early diagnosis when outcomes are better and costs are less or a late diagnosis where costs are higher and survival less likely.
Reducing availability of funds for individuals needing treatment adds overwhelming weight to the public health crisis and early intervention leads to reduced health costs and improved overall outcomes. For minority populations these changes could present compounded risk due to already existing disparities in treatment : https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/legislative/hearings/2000-ethnic-minority-disparities-cancer-treatment.pdf as black americans already face higher rates of overall incidence of cancer and higher rates of death than their white counterparts.
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