HHS says 90 percent of new Medicaid enrollees satisfied with healthcare under expansion

Just a day before congressional Republicans introduced a plan to replace the ACA, HHS released a study saying Medicaid expansion under the law has been beneficial to the vast majority of its users.

The report says 78 percent of new Medicaid enrollees said they wouldn’t have been able to afford their medical care without the ACA’s efforts to expand the program, and that more than 90 percent of them are happy with their plans and their doctors.

The results are based on analyzing data from 2014 and 2015 of the 31 states that have accepted Medicaid expansion aid from the federal government. The Obama administration is hoping to use the data to convince the remaining states to enact the expansions.

“This Administration remains committed to working with all remaining states toward Medicaid expansion so they too can realize lower uninsured rates, healthier populations, and significant economic benefits,” Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement. 

Among the other findings of the study touted by the administration are that expansion states have seen their uninsured rates fall by nearly half, while non-expansion states have only seen their uninsured rates drop by a little more than a third since the ACA was enacted. The study authors also say the benefits might be bigger than they appear.  

“In fact, the raw difference in the reduction in the uninsured rate between expansion and non-expansion states likely substantially understates the effect of Medicaid expansion… [T]he ACA’s other coverage provisions have generated smaller reductions in the uninsured rate in those [expansion] states, partially masking the beneficial effect of Medicaid expansion,” they wrote.

On top of all that, the study also points out that Medicaid expansion has improved the new enrollees’ access to care through their own doctors and through community health clinics. Plus, uninsured hospitalization rates, preventative care, early diagnosis and prescription coverage have all improved in expansion rates.

The study even speculates that people in Medicaid expansion states could experience better overall financial well-being than residents of non-expansion states, because credit collections in those areas were reduced by up to $1,000.