Effect of Medicaid Coverage on ED Use — Further Evidence from Oregon’s Experiment

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 375; no. 16; pp. 1505 - 1507
• Main Authors: Finkelstein, Amy N, Taubman, Sarah L, Allen, Heidi L, Wright, Bill J, Baicker, Katherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 20.10.2016
• Subjects: Data processing; Emergency medical care; Emergency Service, Hospital - trends; Emergency Service, Hospital - utilization; Health insurance; Health services utilization; Humans; Insurance Coverage; Medicaid; Oregon; Primary Health Care - trends; Primary Health Care - utilization; United States; Oregon; United States > US
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1609533

Newly insured people will most likely use more health care across settings, including the emergency department, for at least 2 years, rather than substituting office visits for ED use, according to an analysis of additional data from Oregon's Medicaid lottery. The effect of Medicaid coverage on health and the use of health care services is of first-order policy importance, particularly as policymakers consider expansions of public health insurance. Estimating the effects of expanding Medicaid is challenging, however, because Medicaid enrollees and the uninsured differ in many ways that may also affect outcomes of interest. Oregon’s 2008 expansion of Medicaid through random-lottery selection of potential enrollees from a waiting list offers the opportunity to assess Medicaid’s effects with a randomized evaluation that is not contaminated by such confounding factors. In a previous examination of the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, we found . . .