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Oregon's Health Insurance Experiment

Michael Cannon offers a great analysis at National Review online of the experiment Oregon undertook in 2008 to provide a lottery-picked group of Oregonians with Medicaid coverage.  Some of the interesting tidbits:

  • "medical consumption was no higher in the first half of the year, suggesting there was no “pent-up demand” for medical care."
  • "Though President Obama has claimed that broader health-insurance coverage and consumption of preventive care would lead to a reduction in emergency-room visits, the OHIE found no discernible difference in ER use between Medicaid enrollees and the control group."
  • " Though the president has claimed his health-care law will “save lives,” the OHIE detected no evidence that extending Medicaid to 10,000 adults did so in the first year. "
  • There was an improvement in patient's own assessment of their health.  However, "two-thirds of the improvement in self-reported health occurred almost immediately after enrollment, before any increases in medical consumption. The authors posit that much of this improvement could reflect “an improved overall sense of well-being” rather than “changes in objective physical health.”".

The whole article is worth a look.
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