New England Journal of Medicine: Expanding Medicaid Didn’t Lead To Big Health Gains In Oregon

Like it or not, New Mexico is heading down the expensive path of Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare. One of the concerns we expressed in opposing the expansion was related to some preliminary data from Oregon which seemed to show that Medicaid doesn’t really do much to improve the health of its recipients.

Well, the data are no longer preliminary, rather they are confirmed. According to a new report from the New England Journal of Medicine, indeed, having Medicaid newly available “did not lead to big health gains” in Oregon.”

In other words, Medicaid expansion will likely result in a lot of additional spending for very little in the way of results.

On a related note, I found this story very interesting. There is a pilot program in Medicare that, if replicated nationwide, would save an estimated $122 billion a year and improve patient lives through reduced hospitalizations (a 33% reduction). Rather than expanding this program, the Obama Administration is going to kill it.