Dive Brief:
- A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health compared 3,000 adults living below the federal poverty level without health insurance and 1,500 adults with Medicaid between 1999 and 2012.
- Adults with Medicaid were more likely to have at least one doctor visit a year, more aware of their health status, and had better control of their high blood pressure than those without insurance. However, there was no association with awareness or control of diabetes or high cholesterol.
- A previous study, conducted in Oregon, found the uninsured averaged five doctor visits a year, and that Medicaid coverage improved mental health, but not physical health.
Dive Insight:
Dr. Benjamin D. Sommers of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, who was not affiliated with the new study, told Reuters, “People who have Medicaid are better off and it’s not even close.” However, he cautioned that Medicaid is not a “magic bullet.”
Lead author of the study, Dr. Andrea Christopher, a fellow at Harvard Medical School, said, “Medicaid has some limitation in its ability to truly improve access to care, including low physician reimbursement rates, and some providers don’t take Medicaid patients.” Insurance coverage, she added, “improves the stability and health of the country as a whole.”
A study by the National Institutes of Health, previously reported in Healthcare Dive, confirmed results that in adults 50 years and older with high blood pressure, targeting a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) reduced rates of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and heart failure, as well as stroke, by 25%.