What Rising Cancer Incidence Means for Health Plans

Cancer is already a top cost driver for U.S. health plans and employers. With new data from the American Cancer Society (ACS) showing rising cancer incidence – particularly among women and young people – health plans can expect to see their spending increase, too.

The ACS published its Cancer Statistics, 2025 and Cancer Facts & Figures 2025reports last week, outlining the latest trends and data on cancer’s impact across the country. As health plans strive to fight the rising cost of care and take control of cancer in their populations, these insights emphasize the importance of a comprehensive cancer strategy that prioritizes early interventions and proactive care all along a cancer journey – from early detection through diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. 

Here’s what we learned from the reports, and why health plans should take note in their approach to cancer management. 

1. Fewer people are dying from cancer, but diagnosis rates continue to climb across common cancer types – including in young people.

While cancer mortality rates have fallen by 34% since 1991, for the second year in a row there will be over two million new cancer diagnoses in 2025. That’s about 5,600 new diagnoses each day. Incidence is rising in breast, uterine corpus, melanoma, and liver cancers in women, prostate cancer in men, and pancreatic and oral cancers (associated with the human papillomavirus) overall. Cancer rates are also rising in younger generations for 17 of the 34 cancer types, particularly colorectal cancer, breast cancer in women under 50, and cervical cancer in women aged 30 to 44.

This trend indicates that more of your members may be diagnosed with cancer, meaning the cost of care may increase for your population. To keep costs down and improve clinical outcomes for members, it’s more crucial than ever to prioritize early interventions across the continuum of care. Detecting cancer just one stage earlier decreases treatment costs by $52,000 per year and triples survival rates. 

Most health plans focus on post-diagnosis treatment management, but in Color’s experience, there are opportunities to lower costs and improve outcomes with earlier interventions at every stage of the cancer journey – starting before a person becomes sick, spanning the course of diagnosis and treatment, and extending long into recovery. If a member has a family history of colorectal cancer, for instance, understanding their risk profile and screening needs, helping them get screened, and connecting them to the right care as quickly as possible can help drive an earlier diagnosis. Average annual treatment costs for stage I colorectal cancer are $79,000 and survival rates are 88%, compared with $272,000 and 16% for stage IV. 

Offering continued support after the patient enters remission can help guide them through a difficult time, helping them stay on top of follow-up testing and treatment to prevent recurrence. As we can see, cancer is more than one event to be managed, there are numerous touchpoints where well-timed interventions can make all the difference. 

2. Women under 50 have an 82% higher cancer incidence rate than their male counterparts.

Across the board, more women under 65 are being diagnosed with cancer than men, including for lung cancer for the first time since 2021. This means there is more that health plans can do to help women detect cancer as early as possible – when treatment is less expensive and survival rates are higher – and receive guidelines-driven care.

Today, health plans may use tools like the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) to improve screening rates in their populations, but it’s been challenging for them to navigate changing guidelines across multiple cancer types and update coverage recommendations according to the latest protocols. Cancer programs that help women understand their cancer risk and stratify members appropriately, help them get screened for cancer according to the latest guidelines, then start treatment as efficiently as possible, will no doubt contribute to lower treatment costs and better outcomes. For example, understanding a member’s smoking status, family history, and other factors that inform their lung cancer screening needs, then helping them get screened and navigate follow-up care, can facilitate earlier interventions when needed. Compared to lung cancers caught at stage IV, stage I disease costs $319,000 less to treat, and survival rates are 88% higher.

3. Inequities in cancer outcomes remain deeply embedded, especially for Native and Black Americans.

Native American people have two-to-three times higher mortality rates for kidney, liver, stomach, and cervical cancers compared to White people. In addition, Black people are twice as likely as White people to die of prostate, stomach, and uterine corpus cancers. A range of inequities and challenges related to one’s socioeconomic status, where they live, and other social determinants of health may mean some of your members have a harder time accessing timely, high-quality cancer care. For example, cervical cancer incidence can vary 2-fold by state, ranging from five diagnoses per 100,000 women in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut to more than 10 per 100,000 women in Texas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Puerto Rico.

Offering 24/7, cancer-expert-led support ensures each member receives the best, most affordable, well-timed care that is personalized to their unique needs and cultural preferences. This level of support can close the gaps in care that contribute to cancer disparities in outcomes among your population, driving down costs and improving outcomes for individual members and at a population scale.

In light of these findings from ACS, health plans can take concrete action to take control of cancer in their population. To make the most meaningful and lasting impact against cancer, they can address the full spectrum of cancer care with proactive, evidence-based cancer programs.  

At Color Health, we built our Virtual Cancer Clinic to fill this need with a first-of-its-kind, fully-integrated cancer program powered by a 50-state licensed team of cancer-focused clinical experts that delivers proactive, evidence-based interventions at every step of the cancer journey – from early detection to treatment management to survivorship.

Find out more at www.color.com/health-plans today, or reach out at learnmore@color.com.