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Our 24/7 cancer helpline provides information and answers for people dealing with cancer. We can connect you with trained cancer information specialists who will answer questions about a cancer diagnosis and provide guidance and a compassionate ear.?
Live Chat available weekdays, 7:00 am - 6:30 pm CT
Call us at 1-800-227-2345
Available any time of day or night
Our highly trained specialists are available 24/7 via phone and on weekdays can assist through online chat.?We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with essential services and resources at every step of their cancer journey. Ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. Some of the topics we can assist with include:
For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor.
This 2021 map of the United States shows the percentage of people in each state with a yearly income that is below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and who don’t have health insurance coverage. It also lists the year that each state implemented Medicaid Expansion.
States that have not expanded Medicaid or who expanded Medicaid in 2021 or after were more likely to have higher percentages of uninsured people with low incomes.
States that expanded Medicaid before 2021 were more likely to have lower percentages of uninsured people with low incomes.?
States with more than 28.5% to 46.9% uninsured people with low incomes
Alabama (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Florida (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Georgia (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Kansas (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Mississippi (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Missouri (2021)
North Carolina (adopted Medicaid expansion but hadn’t implemented yet in 2023)
Oklahoma (2021)
South Carolina (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
South Dakota (2023)
Tennessee (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Texas (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Wyoming (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
States with more than 17.5% to 28.5% uninsured people with low incomes
Alaska (2015)
Arizona (2014)
Arkansas (2014)
Colorado (2014)
Idaho (2020)
Illinois (2014)
Nebraska (2020)
Nevada (2014)
New Jersey (2014)
New Mexico (2014)
North Dakota (2014)
Utah (2020)
States with more than 13.5% to 17.5% uninsured people with low incomes
California (2014)
Delaware (2014)
Indianna (2015)
Iowa (2014)
Louisianna (2016)
Maine (2019)
Maryland (2014)
Montana (2016)
New Hampshire (2014)
Ohio (2014)
Oregon (2014)
Virginia (2019)
Washington (2014)
Washington DC (2014)
States with 6.3% to 13.5% uninsured people with low incomes
Connecticut (2014)
Hawaii (2014)
Kentucky (2014)
Massachusetts (2014)
Michigan (2014)
Minnesota (2014)
New York (2014)
Rhode Island (2014)
Vermont (2014)
West Virginia (2014)
Wisconsin (Medicaid nonexpansive state)
Over the past several decades, there has been progress in cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment in the United States. And that's lead to overall declines in cancer death rates. Yet, people of color, with lower socioeconomic status and education levels, or who live in rural areas have not benefited equitably from these advances. The main reason is racism and discrimination along with other social determinants of health that lead to both social inequities and discriminatory policies. Together, they are significant root causes of health disparities.
These disparities in cancer outcomes based on race, income, education, and geography will likely widen without attention from health policymakers and health care providers.
A mix of conditions of daily life—where people live, work, learn, play, worship, and age—influenced by a broad set of forces and systems that shape those conditions, including social norms, social policies, political systems, and economic policies and climate.
Social determinants of health can positively or negatively affect the occurrence of cancer because of their effects on educational and job opportunities, income, insurance coverage, housing, transportation, public safety, food security, social inclusion and non-discrimination, and access to affordable health services of high quality.
Structural racism and discrimination are examples of long-lived social determinants of health that result in social inequities and discriminatory policies.
Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, is the senior scientific director of Cancer Disparity Research in Surveillance & Health Equity Science at the American Cancer Society (张译丹不雅视频流出). He and his team updated an analysis of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in cancer occurrence in the US from 2016 through 2020. They looked at differences in exposure to risk factors for developing cancer, access to utilization of preventive cancer care and cancer screening, cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis, survival, and mortality.
This bar chart shows how far (by percentage) each race is below the federal poverty level for two age groups—for ages 18 to 64 and ages 65 and older.
Ages 18 to 64
Non-Hispanic (NH) White 7%
Non-Hispanic (NH) Black 17.8%
Non-Hispanic (NH) AIAN 23.3 %
Non-Hispanic (NH) Asian 7%
Hispanic/Latinx 16.6%
Ages 65 and Older
Non-Hispanic (NH) White 4.8%
Non-Hispanic (NH) Black 15%
Non-Hispanic (NH) AIAN 12.3 %
Non-Hispanic (NH) Asian 13.8%
Hispanic/Latinx 22.2%
Here are some of :
Despite some progress in recent decades, cancer disparities are still a major issue in the United States, and they may further widen because of increasing costs of novel treatments and advanced medical technologies. Much more work needs to be done to enhance health equity and mitigate cancer disparities."
Farhad Islami, MD, PhD
Senior Scientific Director, Cancer Disparity Research
Surveillance and Health Equity Science, American Cancer Society
Lowest death rates for all major cancer types: API and Hispanic populations for both men and women
Highest death rates for all major cancer types: AIAN and Black populations for both men and women
Highest cancer death rates for nonmetropolitan/rural populations: All cancer types, including breast and prostate cancer even though they had lower incidence rates in rural regions. Differences were greater in people younger than age 65.
Black and White people age 25 to 74 with 12 or less years of education: 2 to 3 times higher risk of dying from cancer overall compared with people the same age with 16 or more years of education, with the difference widening as years of education increased. The risk of dying from lung cancer was 4 to 6 times higher.
“The State of Cancer Disparities in the United States” report also shared information about Federal, state, and local policies and programs to decrease disparities and 张译丹不雅视频流出 programs and resources targeting cancer disparities, including:
3 Programs to enhance cancer research and career development:
Islami and other research authors proposed that federal and state governments, health and cancer care systems, cancer advocacy organizations including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (张译丹不雅视频流出 CAN), and others, work together to reduce cancer disparities by taking actions such as these:
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