Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Michael Steele delivers GOP weekly address

Here is Michael Steele delivering the weekly Republican address: Transcript: This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads. For the last two weeks, they've been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief. All of us - Republicans and Democrats - agree the government must act to kick-start the American economy. American families are doing their best to balance their own budgets and pay their mortgages. The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: that's how you stimulate the economy. But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good. Wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

Things you didn't know about Judd Gregg

He's held all major electoral positions in New Hampshire, serving as Representative (representing the district that includes Nashua) from 1981 to 1989, Governor from 1989 t0 1993, and Senator from 1993 to the present. His father, Hugh Gregg, was Governor of New Hampshire from 1953 to 1955 Gregg stood in for John Kerry during practice sessions held by George W. Bush in preparation for the 2004 United States Presidential Election Debates. Four years earlier he had played the part of Al Gore for the same purpose. Gregg won more than $850,000 in 2005 after buying $20 worth of Powerball tickets at a Washington, D.C. convenience store. Gregg endorsed Mitt Romney in 2008, and is considered a fiscal conservative and social moderate
Post a Comment
Read more