Loosening restriction on STLD insurance plans resulted in increase in late-stage diagnosis of cancer<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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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<\/em>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “Future studies to monitor the federal and state STLD policies regarding cancer care and outcomes are warranted,” the authors write.<\/p>\n