Comment: This study is giving Obamacare supporters fits. They are pushing to expand Medicaid, but the dirty little secret is that Medicaid recipients are no better off in terms of health outcomes than people without insurance. And herding millions more people into Medicaid as if they were cattle is the plan for attaining healthcare nirvana in this country? Moo-oooo!
“the authors of the Oregon study published their updated, two-year results, finding that Medicaid “generated no significant improvement in measured physical health outcomes.” The result calls into question the $450 billion a year we spend on Medicaid, and the fact that Obamacare throws 11 million more Americans into this broken program.”
“the authors of the Oregon study were comparing enrollment in Medicaid to remaining uninsured.”
“the authors did prospectively seek to examine several objective health outcomes: (1) elevated blood pressure; (2) high cholesterol; (3) elevated HbA1c levels; and (4) long-term cardiovascular risk, as measured by the Framingham risk score.”
“Because Oregon’s Medicaid program pays more, the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries have relatively better access to doctors. While 21 percent of Oregon physicians won’t take new Medicaid patients—an unacceptably high number—the national average is even worse: 31 percent.”
“This is perhaps the most significant bias in the Oregon Medicaid study. Better access to physicians should lead to better outcomes for Oregon Medicaid beneficiaries than we would likely see in most other states.”
“As the authors put it, “Medicaid coverage had no significant effect on the prevalence or diagnosis of [high blood pressure] or high cholesterol levels or on the use of medication for these conditions. It increased the probability of a diagnosis of diabetes, but it had no significant effect on the prevalence of measured glycated hemoglobin levels.””
“And all of that, despite the fact that the study had many biasing factors working in Medicaid’s favor: most notably, the fact that Oregon’s Medicaid program pays doctors better; and also that the Medicaid enrollees were sicker, and therefore more likely to benefit from medical care than the control arm.”
Avik Roy
May 2, 2013
Oregon Study: Medicaid ‘Had No Significant Effect’ On Health Outcomes vs. Being Uninsured
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/05/02/oregon-study-medicaid-had-no-significant-effect-on-health-outcomes-vs-being-uninsured/