Can we make a better case for "Medicare For All" than this discovery... ??

[Pluvious]

Can we make a better case for "Medicare For All" than this discovery... ??
( cursed we are to live in such a cruel capitalistic system )
-

"Jump in cancer diagnoses at 65 implies patients wait for Medicare. Increase in lung, breast, colon and prostate cancer diagnoses at the transition from 64 to 65 than at all other age transitions. Lung cancer rates increased 3-4% each year for people aged 61 to 64, then at 65 doubled."

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/03/Cancer-diagnoses-implies-patients-wait-for-Medicare.html

A couple of years ago, Joseph Shrager, MD, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford School of Medicine, noticed a statistical anomaly in his practice. It seemed that patients were diagnosed with lung cancer at a surprisingly higher rate at 65 years old than, say, at 64 or 66.

“There was no reason rates should differ much between the ages of 63 and 65,” Shrager said. He talked it over with his thoracic surgeon colleagues at Stanford who said they were seeing something similar. They wondered if the jump in diagnoses might be a result of patients delaying care until they became Medicare eligible at 65.

“If this were true, and patients were delaying screenings or treatments for cancer, it could impact their survival,” Shrager said. A quick exploratory analysis of their own practices showed a twofold increase in lung cancer surgeries in 65-year-old patients compared with 64-year-olds.

“We decided to explore this, and its broader implications, in a larger population,” Shrager said.

In a follow-up study published March 29 in Cancer, the researchers found a substantial rise nationwide in new cancer diagnoses at 65 — not only for lung cancer but also for breast, colon and prostate cancer. The four are the most common cancers in the United States.

“Essentially we showed there is a big jump in cancer diagnoses as people turn 65 and are thus Medicare-eligible,” said Shrager, the senior author of the study. The study’s lead author is Deven Patel, MD, a surgical resident at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles who spent a year as a research fellow at Stanford. “This suggests that many people are delaying their care for financial reasons until they get health insurance through Medicare.”

More references: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33778953/

[FakeNoose]

1. People are skipping regular annual checkups while they're still working

Seems likely they're not taking the time for doctor visits until they've retired.

[SoonerPride]

2. They don't have insurance

and are waiting for Medicare so they CAN go to the doctor.

[Maeve]

3. Have you seen the bills for a cancer diagnosis?

My step-dad would have been financially destroyed if he had been required to pay the bills without Medicare and his supplemental plan. With them? Less than $5000 out-of-pocket.

[Budi]

4. Well yes, President Biden's Affordable Care Act actually

IMO

[sheshe2]

5. This!

[Budi]

7. After 5+ yrs of hearing M4A, we still have yet to hear or view a full ...

...comprehensive policy plan on how it will be rolled out, funding or a comparison between M4A & ACA to determine the difference between the two.

5 years & waiting...

[betsuni]

11. Thank you!

[George II]

6. The big disconnect is that "Medicare for All" is NOT "Medicare", not even similar.

[Budi]

8. That is absolutely the truth. It is not Medicare as we know it to be.

So don't call it Medicare, maybe.

[stopdiggin]

9. this is so basic and fundamental ....

Was there really anybody (medical or otherwise) that was not aware Medicare was scooping up a large slice of formerly 'under' and uninsured? Where were these people living?

[Hortensis]

10. No. The ACA is real. MfA is a political slogan to woo voters,

and that's all. An empty promise that never has to be made real.

You can't go to imaginary doctors, Pluvious. You need the real thing for yourself, and of course others need them today and every day. For real.

[betsuni]

12. +1

[Budi]

13. M4A explained in one short paragraph.

Thanks..