MONDAY, Oct. 7, 2024 (HealthDay News) — During the first decade of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), survival and mortality increased among young adults with cancer who were eligible for dependent care expansion (DCE), according to a study published online Oct. 7 in Cancer.

Michael Roth, M.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues compared changes in cancer survival and mortality before and after enactment of the ACA DCE for young adults (ages: 12 to 18 years; 19 to 25 years [DCE-eligible]; and 26 to 32 years).

The researchers found that the DCE-eligible cohort was the only age group of the three evaluated that had improvements in both cancer survival and death rate trends after ACA implementation. The inflection year was 2010, the year the ACA was passed, for both survival and deaths. Six years from passage, the relative survival after cancer diagnosis was 2.6 and 3.9 times greater in the DCE-eligible age group than in the younger and older control groups, respectively. Furthermore, the cancer death rate in the DCE-eligible age group improved 2.1 and 1.5 times greater than in the younger and older control age groups, respectively.

“Within just 10 years after its passage, the DCE has allowed young adults with cancer who were covered by it to live longer and more likely be cured,” lead author Archie Bleyer, M.D., of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said in a statement. “Moreover, other serious physical or mental diseases are likely also having better outcomes since the ACA DCE and should be similarly evaluated, which could strengthen the need even more for ACA and Medicaid coverage and expansion.”

Two authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical companies.

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