BETHESDA, MD — Does the universal healthcare provided by the U.S. military health system (MHS) mean better lung cancer survival for patients? A new study suggested that is the case.
A report in the journal Cancer Causes & Control noted that, in contrast to the MHS, healthcare access varies in the U.S. general civilian population by insurance status/type.1
A study team led by researchers from the Murtha Cancer Center Research Program and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, both in Bethesda, MD, divided the patients from the U.S. general population by insurance status/type and compared them to the MHS patients in survival.
The military health system patients were identified from the DoD’s Automated Central Tumor Registry (ACTUR). Patients from the U.S. general population were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. The focus of the study was overall survival.
“Compared to ACTUR patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), SEER patients showed significant worse survival,” the authors pointed out.
The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were 1.08 [95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.03-1.13], 1.22 (95% CI = 1.16-1.28), 1.40 (95% CI = 1.33-1.47), 1.50 (95% CI = 1.41-1.59), for insured, insured/no specifics, Medicaid and uninsured patients, respectively. “The pattern was consistently observed in subgroup analysis by race, gender, age, or tumor stage,” according to the study. “Results were similar for small cell lung cancer (SCLC), although they were only borderline significant in some subgroups.”
The authors advised that the “survival advantage of patients receiving care from a universal healthcare system over the patients from the general population was not restricted to uninsured or Medicaid as expected, but was present cross all insurance types, including patients with private insurance. Our findings highlight the survival benefits of universal health care system to lung cancer patients.”
- Lin J, Shriver CD, Zhu K. Survival among lung cancer patients: comparison of the U.S. military health system and the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) program by health insurance status. Cancer Causes Control. 2024 Jan;35(1):21-31. doi: 10.1007/s10552-023-01765-0. Epub 2023 Aug 2. PMID: 37532916.