Uninsured Die At Higher Rates After Brain Surgery
Your chances of surviving brain surgery might be affected by whether you have health insurance.
According to the findings of a new study by Johns Hopkins University researchers, uninsured patients died at a higher rate after receiving brain surgery to remove cancerous tumors than those with private insurance. Uninsured patients had a death rate of 2.6 percent, compared to 1.3 percent among the privately insured, a statistically significant difference.
“If you have some type of insurance, you’re going to do better,” said Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, the study’s lead researcher, adding that survival rates for patients covered by Medicaid were slightly better than those for the uninsured, but the difference was not significant.