Piecing together the puzzle of disparities in adolescents and young adults.

Abstract

As we sit poised to witness the evolution of the delivery of health care in the United States, we are hard pressed not to consider the impact of the health care delivery model on patient outcome. In order to assess what impact, if any, we have made on patient outcome, it is our duty to evaluate each piece of this model both before it is changed and then after it has evolved. This is especially important when we consider vulnerable populations as in many instances, these are the patients that reform is aiming to protect, whose health promotion and disease treatment we are aiming to improve.1, 2 The National Cancer Institute has deemed adolescents and young adults (15–39 years of age) with cancer to be a vulnerable population as through time, these AYAs have not seen the same improvements in survival outcome as have children or adults 40 years and older3. Young adults represent the largest group of uninsured in the US both pre- and post-ACA implementation,4 however this age group has seen the steepest increase in coverage in the immediate post-ACA period.5