Cancer awareness blogs

The facts about Health equity and Cancer

By Liz
February 19, 2010 

Last week the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosted a call for bloggers about health equity in America. Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer at the American Cancer Society, and Linda Blount, National Vice President, Health Disparities, were the featured speakers.

Health equity is a serious issue. According to the ACS, Hispanic women have twice the mortality rate for cervical cancer as white women; uninsured patients are 1.5 times more likely to die of their colorectal cancer than privately insured patients; poor women will be diagnosed with late stage breast cancer twice as often as upper income women; and, a recent study showed that a significant number of Korean American women are not familiar with the Pap test. This is so disturbing and so important for all Americans to understand as our legislators debate healthcare reform. At any given time, 16 percent of Americans are uninsured.

Says Brawley, “There is a host of people who don’t get the healthcare they need. Uninsured Americans get too little care, too late.”

Consider these facts

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country (two times what Switzerland, the next highest spender does) and yet, as a country, we rank number 29 in life expectancy. Brawley says that’s because there is a lot of unnecessary care given and a lot of necessary care not given.

Brawley and Blount went on to explain that socioeconomic status is the single biggest determiner of health and that education levels determine socioeconomic status. Adults who haven’t finished high school are two times as likely to be obese as adults who have graduated college. The connection there is that obesity is one of the most important factors in cancer development, second only to tobacco.

Healthcare reform is not a political issue. It is a matter of equity. Today, an insured American with advanced stage cancer is more likely to be alive in five years, than an uninsured American with a lower stage cancer. Call your Senators today and let them know we need healthcare and health equity for all Americans.

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