Reports from RAND Add New Data to Findings in Medicare and Medicaid (Gaining Coverage Through Medicaid Or Private Insurance Increased Prescription…

Reports from RAND Add New Data to Findings in Medicare and Medicaid (Gaining Coverage Through Medicaid Or Private Insurance Increased Prescription Use And Lowered Out-Of-Pocket Spending)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Investigators publish new report on Medicare and Medicaid. According to news originating from Arlington, Virginia, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "A growing body of literature describes how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health insurance coverage. What is less well known is how these coverage gains have affected populations that are at risk for high health spending."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from RAND, "To investigate this issue, we used prescription transaction data for a panel of 6.7 million prescription drug users to compare changes in coverage, prescription fills, plan spending, and out-of-pocket spending before and after the implementation of the ACA's coverage expansion. We found a 30 percent reduction in the proportion of this population that was uninsured in 2014 compared to 2013. Uninsured people who gained private coverage filled, on average, 28 percent more prescriptions and had 29 percent less out-of-pocket spending per prescription in 2014 compared to 2013. Those who gained Medicaid coverage had larger increases in fill rates (79 percent) and reductions in out-of-pocket spending per prescription (58 percent). People who gained coverage who had at least one of the chronic conditions detailed in our study saw larger decreases in out-of-pocket spending compared to those who did not have at least one condition."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "These results demonstrate that by reducing financial barriers to care, the ACA has increased treatment rates while reducing out-of-pocket spending, particularly for people with chronic conditions."

For more information on this research see: Gaining Coverage Through Medicaid Or Private Insurance Increased Prescription Use And Lowered Out-Of-Pocket Spending. Health Affairs, 2016;35(9):1725-1733. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from A.W. Mulcahy, RAND Corp, Arlington, VA 22202, United States. Additional authors for this research include C. Eibner and K. Finegold.

Keywords for this news article include: Arlington, Virginia, United States, North and Central America, Medicare and Medicaid, Health Policy, Medicaid, RAND.

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