A new study says more low-income women are getting screened for breast cancer in states with expanded access to Medicaid.
The study, presented Monday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting, found low-income women in certain expansion states were 25 percent more likely to be screened for breast cancer than elsewhere.
The researchers at St. John Providence Hospital in Michigan looked at states that expanded Medicaid by 2011. The First State waited until 2014, but spokeswoman Beth Krallis of the nonprofit Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition says screenings have long been a priority for the state.
Now, with Medicaid expansion, she says they're also more affordable:
"Certainly, more people have qualified for Medicaid. They'll have access to funding, so they don't have to decide between getting their screening and paying for something else," Krallis says. "We don't want to see those barriers -- we work hard to break down those barriers."
She says 800 Delawareans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. The state is also #1 in the country for one aggressive form of the disease. But Krallis says Delaware has also worked to bring screenings to more women with services like the state-owned, coalition-operated mobile mammography van.
In the wake of Medicaid expansion, she says, "it's a source of relief for many of those women and for us to know that they'll get their screenings more easily."
Krallis says access to Medicaid also helps women afford more care in general, meaning better early advice on when to start screening. Most women are advised to start getting mammograms after age 40.
The state is also making a big push to get more low-income people covered under the Affordable Care Act this winter. Stay tuned for more coverage of that issue this Friday on The Green.