Evaluating Medicare expansion effects on breast cancer outcomes in near-elderly women, indicating disparities persist.
This article evaluates whether expanding Medicare to cover those between ages 55 and 64 will improve the health status of these near‐elderly individuals. We compare the experiences of near‐elderly and elderly women with breast cancer and pay special attention to those demographic groups traditionally thought to be disadvantaged. Using unique individual‐level data from the National Cancer Institute, we find that expanding Medicare does not improve the probability that a black woman will have her cancer diagnosed early. However, if she does happen to be diagnosed early, a discretE‐time hazard model of survival finds that the price effects of insurance will improve her odds of survival.
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Decker et al. (2002) studied this question.
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