It is known that socioeconomic status(SES) of the cancer patient is associated with survival in recent studies, performed in other countries. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the association between status of national health insurance and survival is also present in a community in Jeonnam province, South Korea. The Gwangju-Jeonnam Cancer Registry, a population-based cancer registry, provided information to identify the cancer cases of study community diagnosed from 1998 to 2007. Total of 2,046 cases were identified during the period. There were significant associations between the status of national health insurance and survival for total cancer after adjusted by age, geographic accessibility to health care, and stage at diagnosis. However, this differences were not found in the analysis using only stomach and colorectal cancer cases. Despite of some limitations, this results suggest that the policy for reducing the difference according to the SES is required in national cancer management program.