Objective: To assess whether the Catastrophic Health Expenditures Fund (FPGC, Spanish acronym) was associated with delays in seeking medical care and in starting treatment.
Materials and methods: We conducted a before and after cross-sectional study. We included 266 women with breast cancer (BC) diagnosis treated during the last three years before the hospitals received the FPGC and 309 wo-men treated in the following three years after the fund was received by the accredited hospitals.
Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, we found no association between the FPGC and delay in seeking medical care or between the FPGC and the treatment delay.
Conclusions: The FPGC initiative reduced neither the delay in seeking breast cancer medical care for breast cancer nor the treatment delay.