On July 7, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) published a study examining the impact of providing health coverage to uninsured low-income individuals.  Focusing on the impact on health service utilization, health outcomes, and financial burden, the study examined the effects of a 2008 Oregon Medicaid expansion that used a lottery system to select 10,000 participants to enroll in Medicaid out of a pool of approximately 90,000 applicants.  NBER found that beneficiaries had statistically significantly higher health service utilization and better self reported physical and mental health than the control group, which was comprised of individuals not selected for Medicaid coverage in the lottery.  Additionally, the authors found statistically significantly lower out-of-pocket (OOP) medical spending and medical debt among beneficiaries when compared to the control group.  The study has implications for the impact of the national health care reform law’s Medicaid expansion on uninsured individuals.

Finkelstein, Amy et. al. (2011). The Oregon health insurance experiment: evidence from the first year. National Bureau of Economic Research, (17190). http://www.nber.org/papers/w17190

Authors: Amy Finkelstein, Sarah Taubman, Bill Wright, Mira Bernstein, Jonathan Gruber, Joseph P. Newhouse, Heidi Allen, and Katherine Baicker.