Study: Medicaid expansion helped health for chronically ill adults

The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion was associated with improvements in mental health and access to care among low-income adults with chronic conditions, according to a study published this week in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study, which used an analytical framework to assess differential changes in self-reported health outcomes and access to care, included about 69,000 participants from Medicaid expansion states and 57,000 from non-expansions states. “We found that Medicaid expansion was associated with significant improvements in self-reported mental health outcomes among adults with chronic conditions," the authors write. "Medicaid among this population was also associated with improved insurance coverage, fewer cost-related barriers, and improved access to care." The authors said the positive trends are likely to be reversed if Medicaid expansion were to be repealed.