Low-income adults living in two states that expanded Medicaid enrollment are showing significant increases in outpatient utilization and preventive care, improved health care quality, and reductions in emergency department use, compared with those living in a state that did not expand Medicaid, according to a new study.
The study also found similar improvements in care whether a state expanded traditional Medicaid or increased coverage through a private insurance option.
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Benjamin D. Sommers, MD, PhD, of Harvard University, Boston, and his colleagues examined outcomes for nearly 9,000 low-income Medicaid enrollees in Kentucky (where officials expanded traditional Medicaid), Arkansas (where the state used funds to purchase private insurance to expand coverage), and Texas (which did not expand Medicaid) in November and December of 2013, 2014, and 2015. They looked specifically at changes in use of healthcare services, preventive care, and self-reported health (JAMA Intern Med. 2016 Aug 8. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4419).
“By the end of 2015, we found marked increases in coverage and reduced cost-related barriers to care in the expansion states, with associated increases in preventive care, outpatient visits, annual checkups, and chronic disease care, as well as decreased reliance on the [emergency department],” the researchers wrote.
They found that by 2015 there was a 6 percentage point drop in the likelihood of ED visits (P = 0.04), an increase of 0.69 office visits per person in the outpatient setting (P = 0.04), and an increase likelihood of getting a checkup (16.1 percentage points, P less than .001) in Medicaid expansion states. In Medicaid expansion states the share of adults obtaining regular care for chronic conditions increased by 12 percentage points after expansion (P = .008), compared with Texas. Additionally, adults reporting fair or poor quality of care dropped by 7.1 percentage points (P = .03).
One significant difference between the expansion states was changes in glucose monitoring rates for patients with diabetes were lower in Arkansas than Kentucky (–11.6 percentage points, P = .04).
“Of note, we found improvements in receipt of checkups, care for chronic conditions, and quality of care even in areas with primary care shortages, suggesting that while clinician capacity is undoubtedly an important consideration, insurance expansion can have a demonstrable positive impact even in areas with relative shortages, perhaps partially due to increased use of safety net providers,” the researchers added.
The study was supported by a research grant from the Commonwealth Fund and a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The researchers reported having no financial disclosures.