First scientific study of the value of health insurance

[Assurbanipal]

There are many anecdotal studies and reports of the value of having insurance.  But Oregon's 2008 decision to expand Medicaid provided an opportunity to perform a scientific study on the value of having health insurance.  That's because Oregon budgeted enough money to increase Medicaid by 10,000 people but 90,000 applied and they held a lottery to decide who would get insurance.  

Oregon came up with money to fund insurance for the entire 90,000 a couple of years later, but in the meantime there was a true random sample, allowing a study of the effects of having insurance without other confounding factors coming into play.

The first study has been issued.  Findings include:

Those with Medicaid were 35 percent more likely to go to a clinic or see a doctor, 15 percent more likely to use prescription drugs and 30 percent more likely to be admitted to a hospital. Researchers were unable to detect a change in emergency room use.

Women with insurance were 60 percent more likely to have mammograms, and those with insurance were 20 percent more likely to have their cholesterol checked. They were 70 percent more likely to have a particular clinic or office for medical care and 55 percent more likely to have a doctor whom they usually saw.

The insured also felt better: the likelihood that they said their health was good or excellent increased by 25 percent, and they were 40 percent less likely to say that their health had worsened in the past year than those without insurance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/health/policy/07medicaid.html

edit to fix link

[Ann]

It's a no-brainer really, but I'm glad someone did a scientific study on it to prove what common sense would tell you.

[Assurbanipal]

It's a no-brainer really, but I'm glad someone did a scientific study on it to prove what common sense would tell you.

Well, many (on the right, unsurprisingly) were arguing the other side.  As the article says elsewhere

Some said that of course it would help to insure the uninsured. Others said maybe not. There was already a safety net: emergency rooms, charity care, free clinics and the option to go to a doctor and simply not pay the bill. And in any case, the argument goes, if Medicaid coverage is expanded, people will still have trouble seeing a doctor because so few accept that insurance.

Until now, the arguments were pretty much irresolvable. Researchers compared people who happened to have insurance with those who did not have it. But those who do not have insurance tend to be different in many ways from people who have it. They tend to be less educated and to have worse health habits and lower incomes, said Dr. Alan M. Garber, an internist and health economist at Stanford. No matter how carefully researchers try to correct for the differences “they cannot be completely successful,” Dr. Garber said. “There is always some doubt.”

The presence of an actual study will mean that those declining few on the right who claim to live in the reality based universe will need to adapt their arguments.  (Of course, for the majority of the right this will mean nothing.)

[Ann]

Well, many (on the right, unsurprisingly) do not live in the real world. Sad, eh?

[mecch]

I am all for universal coverage.

What did that scientific study say about them actually being "healthier".  Your quotes talk about the insured seeing more doctors, and having more health care.  But that's a duh, cause it was covered.  And your quotes say they self report on being healthier.

So any investigation on actual health? 

I don't think the right gives a rats ass about a safety net no matter how it is presented and defended.  Sometimes even if they or people near and dear to them suffer from the lack of one.

[OneTampa]

It's a no-brainer really, but I'm glad someone did a scientific study on it to prove what common sense would tell you.

Agree.

[Assurbanipal]

What did that scientific study say about them actually being "healthier".  Your quotes talk about the insured seeing more doctors, and having more health care.  But that's a duh, cause it was covered.  And your quotes say they self report on being healthier.

So any investigation on actual health?  

I think the article says that NIA is funding research on that also -- but it isn't done yet.

The study is now in its next phase, an assessment of the health effects of having insurance.