Medi-Cal cancer patients don't fare much better than the uninsured, UC Davis study says

The L.A. Times reports:

As part of a massive coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act, millions of people have been allowed to sign up for California's health insurance plan for the poor for nearly two years.

The program, known as Medi-Cal, now serves more than 12.5 million people, nearly 1 out of every 3 Californians. But there have been persistent concerns about the quality of care, with questions about whether patients can find doctors and get the help they need.

Now a new analysis adds weight to those worries.

In the first study of its kind, UC Davis researchers found that compared with patients with other kinds of insurance, cancer patients with Medi-Cal were generally less likely to have their cancers caught at early stages, receive recommended treatments and be alive five years after diagnosis. “The aggregate finding that struck me, and continues to strike me, is that the Medi-Cal members seem to have little or no advantage over the uninsured,” said Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, who wrote the study as director of UC Davis' Institute for Population Health Improvement.

Starting in January 2014, Medi-Cal was greatly expanded under the Affordable Care Act, and the program now costs $91 billion. But Medi-Cal did not seem to confer the same benefits as having other kinds of insurance — and often was little better than having no insurance whatsoever, the study found.

Researchers reviewed data on treatments and survival rates for nearly 700,000 cases of breast, colon, rectal, lung and prostate cancers from 2004 to 2012 in California. The analysis is believed to be the first to examine cancer care and outcomes by insurance type.

Just a reminder the next time a progressive talks about more government involvement in health care.