Loosening restriction on STLD insurance plans resulted in increase in late-stage diagnosis of cancer
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, March 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Loosening restrictions on short-term limited duration (STLD) insurance plans, many of which do not cover essential health benefits such as cancer screening, yields an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses compared with continuously prohibited STLD plans, according to a study published online March 18 in JAMA Network Open.
Nuo Nova Yang, M.S.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues examined associations of state-level policies regarding STLD plans and late-stage cancer diagnoses before and after the 2018 federal rule in a cross-sectional study involving 1,289,366 adults aged 18 to 64 years newly diagnosed with cancer in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Patients were categorized according to state-level STLD plan policies: states that continuously prohibited STLD plans before and after 2018; states that stopped offering plans after 2018; states that permitted STLD plans with additional restrictions to the 2018 federal rules; and states with no additional STLD regulation. For all cancers combined and for five common cancers, changes in late-stage diagnoses (stages III/IV) were examined pre-2018 and post-2018 for groups 2, 3, and 4 versus 1.
The researchers found that compared with group 1 (continuously prohibited STLD plans), there was a net increase of 0.76 percentage points in group 4 (no additional regulations to STLD plans) and a net increase of 0.84 percentage points in group 3 (some STLD regulations) in late-stage diagnoses. For female breast and colorectal cancers, similar patterns were seen.
“Future studies to monitor the federal and state STLD policies regarding cancer care and outcomes are warranted,” the authors write.
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