New Study Finds that Medicaid Expansion Under Obamacare Has Saved at Least 19,000 Lives

Matt Broaddus and Aviva Aron-Dine have published the results of a new study on the benefits of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare].
CBPP.org: "The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults is preventing thousands of premature deaths each year, a landmark study finds. It saved the lives of at least 19,200 adults aged 55 to 64 over the four-year period from 2014 to 2017. ... The lifesaving impacts of Medicaid expansion are large: an estimated 39 to 64 percent reduction in annual mortality rates for older adults gaining coverage." ...
... "estimates show that Medicaid expansion ranks with other major public health interventions in terms of its lifesaving potential. If all states had expanded Medicaid, the number of lives saved just among older adults in 2017 would roughly equal the number of lives that seatbelts saved among the full population, based on estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission."
The study also examined the consequences for those states which didn't authorize Medicaid expansion.
CBPP.org: "Conversely, 15,600 older adults died prematurely because of state decisions not to expand Medicaid."
You can read the full results from their research here. It's the most comprehensive study thus far on the benefits of expanding health insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans under Obamacare.
BY: Curated