If you have been diagnosed with cancer, you may want to check your surroundings, because apparently where you live has an effect on your chances of survival.

It's fairly well known that poorer people and minorities have a lower survival rate of diseases like cancer due to lack of health care and at times, a lack of awareness of a good health care regime. A late diagnosis is especially to blame. I think we all know someone who is hesitant to see a doctor due to costs and waits until his or her symptoms are serious before getting care.

By Steven Reinberg
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Spending on health care in the United States could double by 2017, reaching $4.3 trillion and accounting for 19.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, a new government report shows.

FRIDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Americans have a significantly higher prevalence of stroke than their European counterparts, possibly because of additional risk factors and barriers to health care faced by those in the United States, says a new study.

Compared with European men, U.S. men had 61 percent higher odds of having a stroke, and U.S. women had almost twice the chances of having a stroke as European women, according to the findings expected to be presented Friday at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2008, in New Orleans.