Premium
MEDICARE AND INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH OUTCOMES: THE CASE OF BREAST CANCER
Author(s) -
Decker Sandra L.,
Rapaport Carol
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1093/cep/20.1.1
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , breast cancer , odds , cancer survival , medicine , cancer , demography , gerontology , inequality , actuarial science , hazard ratio , economics , logistic regression , economic growth , sociology , confidence interval , mathematical analysis , mathematics
This article evaluates whether expanding Medicare to cover those between ages 55 and 64 will improve the health status of these near‐elderly individuals. We compare the experiences of near‐elderly and elderly women with breast cancer and pay special attention to those demographic groups traditionally thought to be disadvantaged. Using unique individual‐level data from the National Cancer Institute, we find that expanding Medicare does not improve the probability that a black woman will have her cancer diagnosed early. However, if she does happen to be diagnosed early, a discretE‐time hazard model of survival finds that the price effects of insurance will improve her odds of survival.