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Does Medicaid Hurt Or Improve Recipients' Health?

http://media.soundmedicine.org/segments/062313_1.mp3

"Sound Medicine" contributor Aaron Carroll, M.D., M.S., speaks with host Barbara Lewis about the results of the Oregon Medicaid study. Several years ago, Oregon decided to expand its Medicaid program. But with more people than funding for coverage, Oregon selected the recipients through a lottery system, giving researchers the opportunity to do a randomized controlled study of how people use health insurance. In later analysis, researchers found that Medicaid didn’t improve blood pressure or rates of diabetes, but it did improve quality of life and depression. However, Dr. Carroll said the study may have been too small to detect statistically significant differences in overall health.