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Study: Most new Medicaid-eligible adults will be in good health, but smokers
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A new influx of patients who will gain coverage through the expanded Medicaid laws under the Affordable Care Act will potentially be younger, Caucasian, male and in good health, but will also be smokers and moderate to heavy drinkers.
“One of the main concerns has been that current beneficiaries have high health care costs and whether people with new Medicaid coverage would be just like people on Medicaid today,” Tammy Chang, MD, MPH, MS, assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, stated in a press release. “It turns out they look a lot different from the population that currently qualifies.”
Chang and colleagues performed a cross-sectional study of the 13.8 million adults currently under Medicaid and compared them to 13.6 million adults potentially eligible for Medicaid, according to the abstract. They found 49.2% of potentially eligible adults will be male, 58.8% will be Caucasian and 34.8% and 40.4% of eligible adults will be in excellent and very good or good health, respectively. The average age of potentially eligible adults is 36 years, compared to 38 years in adults currently eligible for Medicaid.
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They also noted that newly eligible adults are more likely to be less obese (34.5% vs. 42.9%) or depressed (15.5% vs. 22.3%) than already eligible adults. There were no significant differences in either population regarding frequently of diabetes or hypertension. However, prevalence of smoking (49.2% vs. 38%), moderate drinking (21.6% vs. 16%) and heavy drinking (16.5% vs. 9.8%) were more common in the group of potentially eligible adults, according to the abstract.
Reference:
Chang T. Ann Fam Med. 2013;doi:10.1370/afm.1553.
Disclosure:The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.