Diagnosis of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma by insurance type before and after the Affordable Care Act: a national database study

The Affordable Care Act (ACT) was implemented to increase health care access and reduce the uninsured in the age group between pediatric and Medicare populations (18-64). The association of the ACA with insurance type upon diagnosis (uninsured, Medicaid, non-Medicaid) has been investigated for otolaryngologic, gynecologic, and the top five non-skin malignancies. Such studies for cutaneous malignancies are lacking. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the prospective National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer database to assess the impact of the ACA on new diagnoses of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) by insurance type. Unlike prior studies of other malignancies, we did not observe significant differences between rate of diagnosis of CTCL by insurance type before and after full implementation of the ACA in all states, expansion states, and non-expansion states. Skin cancers do not have screening guidelines and CTCL is an uncommon malignancy,...
Source: Dermatology Online Journal - Category: Dermatology Source Type: research