Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence From the First Year

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In the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year, Finkelstein et al. (2012) analyze the impacts of a 2008 Medicaid application targeting low-income and uninsured Oregon residents. The article indicates that the selection criteria included a lottery, and the objective was to comprehend how public health insurance availability would impact financial positions, health outcomes, and the use of care among low-income adults in Oregon. People who got access to Oregon Health Plan registered considerably higher levels of healthcare use, which ranged from reduced debts drawn from medical expenditures to seeking preventive and primary care. The authors add that the treatment group registered improved health, including physical and mental, which indicates that the experiment had a positive impact on the low-income adults in Oregon.
The study reveals that exposing the treatment group to Medicaid improved health outcomes and reduced financial constrain, especially among the low-income population, which would ultimately impede self-reported health, among other consequences. In fact, within a year, the authors established that self-reported health and healthcare utilization increased among the treatment group. Unlike the control group that was denied the insurance, the people in the lottery selection recorded improved numbers of outpatient and in-patient care and the reliance on prescription drugs. Additionally, since insurance catered for most of the medical bills, instances of medical debts were reduced within the treatment population. Lastly, the authors found that the introduction of Medicaid to low-income populations improved their well-being since they easily self-reported instances of mental and physical ill-health, thus prompting swift interventions rath...