Study: Medicaid expansion associated with lower mortality rates

In a study released this week, Harvard researchers conclude that when states have expanded Medicaid coverage in recent years, mortality rates have decreased (Source: "Medicaid Expansion May Lower Death Rates, Study Says," New York Times, July 26, 2012).

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed data from three states -- New York, Maine and Arizona -- that expanded their Medicaid program in the last decade. The researchers studied the mortality rate in the states five years before and five years after Medicaid expansion and, after adjusting for economic and demographic factors, compared them to neighboring states that didn't expand Medicaid coverage.

The researchers estimate that Medicaid expansion was associated with a 6.1 perfcent decline in deaths, or about 2,840 per year for every 500,000 adults added to the Medicaid rolls.

The study, titled "Mortality and Access to Care among Adults after State Medicaid Expansions," was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.