Medicaid Expansion Didn't Yield Big Health Gains In Oregon, Study Says

Although expanding Medicaid coverage to some low-income Oregon residents substantially improved their mental health and reduced the financial strains on them, it didn’t significantly boost their physical health, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the study, researchers compared health status, finances and use of health services between two groups of state residents: some of the 10,000 people who had been selected through a lottery drawing for health insurance coverage under a 2008 limited expansion to Oregon’s Medicaid program and those who had applied but did not get accepted.

Based on analyses of 12,229 people – 6,387 of whom gained coverage – the study’s results did not show any significant difference in the levels of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes between the two groups two years after the lottery.