Medicaid expansion was a winner in the midterm elections, with voters in three states—Idaho, Nebraska and Utah—passing ballot initiatives to expand coverage. And in Maine and Kansas, Republican governors who opposed expansion were voted out in favor of Democrats who support it.
In a commentary published on WBUR on November 8, 2018, Benjamin Sommers, associate professor of health policy and economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author Amal Trivedi of Brown University School of Public Health, write that getting access to health care could be a lifesaver for low-income residents with chronic conditions.
In a study published in JAMA in October, they found that in Medicaid expansion states, death rates for patients with kidney failure starting dialysis fell by roughly 10% between 2011-2017, while there were no changes in states that did not expand Medicaid.
They write in the commentary, “Medicaid expansion is cost-effective, an investment with a better health return than many other policy changes.”
Read the WBUR commentary:
Medicaid Won The Midterms. Here’s Why That Could Save Lives
Learn more
Following midterms, what’s ahead for health care? (Harvard Chan School news)