The association of the affordable care's Medicaid expansion on survival in gynecologic cancer: A National Cancer Database study.

Abstract

1501 Background: Under the Affordable Care Act’s 2014 Medicaid expansion, more than 12 million Americans gained health insurance. Whether such gains in insurance improve survival in gynecologic cancer is unknown. This study aims to determine whether Medicaid expansion is associated with improved survival among women with gynecologic cancers. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a difference-in-differences study design comparing insurance status, stage at diagnosis, delays in treatment, and one-year survival before and after the ACA’s Medicaid expansion in Medicaid expansion states (intervention group) compared to women in non-expansion states (control group). Using hospital-reported data from the 2010-2016 National Cancer Database, we compared outcomes overall for women ages 40-64 years old with endometrial, cervical, ovarian, or vulva/vaginal cancer and then stratified by cancer type, stage, race, and rural/urban status. We adjusted for patient (area-level income, area-level education, distance traveled for care, comorbidities), clinical (co-morbidities, grade) and hospital (academic facility) characteristics. Results: Our sample included 241,713 women with gynecologic cancer, 119,392 in expansion states and 122,321 in non-expansion states. Post-Medicaid expansion, there was a statistically significant 0.8 % increase in 1-year survival among patients in expansion states compared to non-expansion states (95% CI 0.1-1.5). There was also a significant reduction in uninsurance (-1.1%, 95%CI, --1.5, -0.7) and delays of 30+ days from diagnosis to treatment (-2.4%, 95%CI -3.4, -1.2). There was no significant change in early-stage diagnosis (0%; 95%CI -0.7-0.7). Improvements in one-year survival after Medicaid expansion were driven by ovarian cancer (difference-in-differences 2.2%, 95%CI 0.6-3.8) and in white women (difference-in-differences 0.8%, 95%CI 0.1-1.5), while there was no significant difference in one-year survival for non-white or rural women. Conclusions: The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion was significantly associated with 1-year survival and insurance access among patients with gynecologic cancer. Insurance expansion efforts in non-Medicaid expansion states may improve survival for women with gynecologic cancer.