Study: Medicaid improves overall health

WASHINGTON – A new study led by economists at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that people with Medicaid were 70 percent more likely to use a regular medical office or clinic for their basic care, and 55 percent more likely to have a personal doctor.
In addition, the study found that Medicaid enrollees also were more likely to get preventive care, such as mammograms and cholesterol screening.
The study’s findings, released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, appear to deflate disparaging perceptions about health care under Medicaid.
“The bottom line is that Medicaid really matters in people’s lives,” said MIT economist Amy Finkelstein, lead author of the report. “There is a large concern out there about whether Medicaid actually makes a difference, and now we actually have evidence.”
The study looked at 10,000 Oregonians who won a state-sponsored lottery for Medicaid in 2008, as a way of gauging the effect of expanding access to public health insurance, one of the goals of national health care reform. The study compared the lottery winners with those who had applied but weren’t picked and remained uninsured.
Currently, Medicaid, a combined federal-state program for low-income and disabled people, provides health insurance for more than 200,000 Rhode Islanders, including 103,602 low-income children, according to recent federal statistics. Starting in 2014, it is expected to pick up many of the uninsured people gaining coverage under the new health care reform law. In Rhode Island, there are currently 140,000 people who are uninsured.
In the study of Oregon Medicaid recipients and the uninsured, the study used seven separate measures to capture differences in health. The study found that people with Medicaid did significantly better on all seven measures.
“It gives important evidence that expanding Medicaid improves access to care and use of preventive services,” said study co-author Katherine Baicker, an economist at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It makes a huge positive difference in the lives of the people who gain access to the program.”