Research reported in the economics literature demonstrates that Medicaid makes a substantive difference in people's well-being.
In 2008, Oregon expanded its Medicaid program. Because funding was available for a limited number of spots, a lottery was conducted: Nearly 90,000 people entered the lottery, and more than 35,000 were randomly selected to be eligible to apply for Medicaid. A team of economists seized on this large experiment — equivalent to a randomized controlled trial — to assess the effect of Medicaid coverage on healthcare utilization, health, and personal finances.
About one quarter of the lottery winners followed through and enrolled in Medicaid. The authors compared outcomes between lottery winners and lottery losers, and they estimated the effects in the group of lottery winners who actually enrolled. The results show that eligibility for Medicaid in…
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DisclosuresConsultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education
Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals
DisclosuresConsultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education
Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals