Insurance plays significant role in breast cancer disparities
Study concludes improving access to care could close much of racial gap
Differences in insurance account for a substantial proportion of the excess risk of death from breast cancer faced by black women, according to a new study. The study, appearing in Journal of Clinical Oncology, concludes that equalizing access to care could address much of the existing black/white disparity in breast cancer mortality.
Breast cancer mortality was higher in white women than in black women until the 1980s, when improvements in early detection and treatment began to create a gap between black and white women. Whites benefited more from these improvements, and since then, the black-white mortality gap has continued to widen. In 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, breast cancer mortality rates were 41% higher in black women than white women.