Medicaid Expansion Linked to Fewer Heart-Related Deaths, Study Reveals

by



[ad_1]

Between 2010 and 2016, counties in states where Medicaid has expanded have registered 4 fewer deaths per 100,000 population each year for cardiovascular reasons after expansion, compared to non-state counties. expansive, according to the study. The results were presented at the scientific sessions of the American Heart Association on Friday. Insurance registrations under the ACA began in 2014.
"The overall results of this study are that after the Medicaid expansion in 2014, the mortality rates of areas of the country that have expanded was significantly lower than that of areas that do not." Have not been expanded. "Said Dr. Sameed Khatana, a researcher in cardiovascular disease at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, the first author of the new research.

"It is important to study health policy in a more quantitative way, and I think we are witnessing an increasing number of research studies on this type of topic," he said. "This research is in a way consistent with the growing trend of research in this area."

Everyone can qualify for Medicaid based on their income, household size, disability, family status, and other factors, but the ACA allows states to expand coverage. eligibility of Medicaid so that residents can claim only if their household income level is below federal poverty. level.

The new research is preliminary and is still in its infancy, but it comes because the Trump administration seems to be redoubling its efforts to try to overthrow Obamacare.

In an unexpected move last week, the Justice Department said it subscribed to a December decision by a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the health reform law. The case is now before the Federal Court of Appeal.
The elimination of Obamacare could leave about 20 million more people without health insurance, according to a recent report from the Urban Institute, a think tank on economic and social policies. The president said this week that he would only call for a replacement plan after the 2020 elections.

The new research included mortality data for adults aged 45 to 64, from 2010 to 2016, in all states except Massachusetts and Wisconsin. In these two states, the Medicaid extension was not linked to the ACA.

In 2016, after excluding Massachusetts and Wisconsin, 29 states and the District of Columbia had expanded eligibility for Medicaid, but 19 states had not yet, according to data from the WONDER database of the United States.

The researchers looked closely at the differences between states with respect to cardiovascular disease-related deaths at the county level, before and after the Medicaid expansion.

They adjusted these differences for factors that could distort outcomes, such as the unemployment rate, the median household income, and the number of cardiologists per 100,000 population.

States where illness and death are the most common: a visual guide

The researchers found that, compared to counties in non-expansive states, expansive state counties showed a greater increase in health insurance coverage for low-income residents and a much smaller increase in cardiovascular mortality rates. .

Between 2010 and 2016, deaths from cardiovascular disease increased from 141.9 to 142 per 100,000 population each year in expanding state counties, while deaths from cardiovascular disease increased from 176.1 to 180, 6 per year in non-expanding states counties, the data showed.

Research had some limitations. As this was an observation, the researchers were not able to fully disentangle the factors that could have affected the differences between the counties, whether expanding or not.

Nearly half of American adults have cardiovascular disease, study finds

"The expansion of Medicaid was the main health policy implemented in 2014, but our study did not take into account some other elements, or those that occurred at about the same time, that could potentially explain some of these conclusions, "said Khatana. I said.

"Another [limitation] is that we looked at cardiovascular disease as a whole, so we grouped everything together: heart attack, stroke, arrhythmia, etc. Because a cause of death causes very few deaths in different countries, which was our level of analysis, we are not able to say which disease is responsible for these changes, "he said. declared.

Why insurance is really a matter of life and death, especially for minorities
Public health experts have long known that the presence or absence of health insurance can affect mortality rates, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who did not participate in the new research.

"This study is very much in this direction," said Benjamin, adding that more research needed to be done to confirm the correlation between reducing the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease. and the expansion of Medicaid is truly determined by the ACA and not by any other factors.

Yet, "if you think about the fact that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, it would not be surprising that the leading cause of death declines with health insurance," he said. . "We know very well that even in the Medicaid program, if you give coverage, the mortality goes down."
The new research "contributes to limited knowledge about how the expansion of Medicaid affects health outcomes," said Dr. Olena Mazurenko, assistant professor at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health Indiana University-Purdue University campus involved in research.
Mazurenko was the first author of an article published last year in the journal Health Affairs that showed that the expansion was associated with an increase in coverage, the use of services , quality of care and Medicaid expenses.

This finding was based on a review of 77 studies previously published on Medicaid, but only 16 studies focused on quality of care and health outcomes.

"The Medicaid expansion had taken place a few years ago, it was too early for studies to reliably determine its effect on clinical measures of health status and certainly too early to determine its impact. on the long-term results, "Mazurenko said. I said.

"It is important to note that none of the few published published studies report poorer results due to the expansion of Medicaid," she said. "With more time, researchers will have the opportunity to further determine the effects of Medicaid's expansion on the health of the population."

Dr. Ivor Benjamin, president of the American Heart Association, described the new research as "exciting" and said the association had officially announced its support for "affordable, accessible and available health care".

"So that's our position, so the next question is, how much does it cost?" he said. "What benefit will we have in ensuring that people can afford affordable insurance?" What is the value? And what these data help to provide in this conversation is that "Yes, it's important." ""

[ad_2]

Source link