Just 26 percent of low-income adults in expansion states reported having any unmet medical needs, compared with 40 percent in non-expansion states. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Greater numbers of low-income people in states that have not expanded Medicaid are skipping medical care that they need than in states that did expand Medicaid.
That's according to a report from the Government Accounting Office using data from the 2016 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, which found that Medicaid expansion made a notable difference in whether low-income people got the care they needed.
According to NHIS, “5.6 million low-income adults were uninsured in 2016. Of these 5.6 million, an estimated 1.9 million uninsured, low-income adults resided in expansion states, compared with an estimated 3.7 million in non-expansion states.”
During the same time period, the report finds that more than half of uninsured, low-income adults were male, more than half were employed and more than half had incomes less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level in both expansion and non-expansion states.
In the states that didn't expand, almost 20 percent of low-income residents said they skipped getting necessary health care in the past year because they couldn't afford it. In Medicare-expansion states, just 9.4 percent skipped care.
Not only that, but more low-income adults in expansion states also reported having a regular place to go for care compared to those in non-expansion states. In addition, just 26 percent of low-income adults in expansion states reported having any unmet medical needs, compared with 40 percent in non-expansion states.
And comparing those who were insured with those who were not, just 34 percent or less of the low-income adults who had Medicaid or private health insurance in expansion or non-expansion states reported having any unmet medical needs, compared with 50 percent or more of those who were uninsured in expansion or non-expansion states. Among the uninsured, 50 percent of low-income adults living in expansion states reported any unmet medical needs, compared with 63 percent of those in non-expansion states.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
