Those who gained health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act have been prescribed more drugs and spent less on medicine overall because of the law, a new study finds.
The study by the Santa Monica, California-based nonprofit Rand Corp. focused on the purchasing patterns of 7 million prescription drug users across the country.
Among those who had acquired private health insurance coverage since the ACA was implemented nearly three years ago, filled prescriptions increased 28 percent and out-of-pocket spending dropped by nearly the same rate: 29 percent.
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The benefit was even more dramatic for those who enrolled in Medicaid during that time. Their prescriptions increased 79 percent and their spending declined 59 percent.
The difference was most pronounced for those dealing with one of five common chronic conditions — diabetes, high cholesterol, anxiety or depression, asthma, or breast cancer-related hormone therapy. Among those with high cholesterol who acquired private coverage, drug spending dropped $200 a year, while those who enrolled in Medicaid saw their spending drop $359.
"This is strong evidence that the Affordable Care Act has increased treatment rates while reducing out-of-pocket spending, particularly for people with chronic health conditions," said Andrew W. Mulcahy, lead author of the study and a health policy researcher at Rand, in a statement. "Improving the treatment of people with chronic conditions is an important step in improving health outcomes.
Like many studies before it, the Rand study also found that the uninsured rate had dropped significantly since the ACA implementation, and that states that opted to expand Medicaid eligibility to those with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line saw the greatest decline in the uninsured rate.
Generally, research on the ACA has shown that it has yielded a number of positive health trends. Uncompensated hospital care has declined and fewer people are reporting avoiding medical care because of cost.
Other research has also displayed the law's shortcomings. A survey last year, for instance, showed that many emergency room doctors reported dealing frequently with insured patients for non-emergency ailments, a problem the American College of Emergency Physicians attributed to ACA plans with "narrow networks" that make it difficult to find an in-network primary care physician or specialist nearby.
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