Medicaid Expansion Reduced Uninsured Surgical Hospitalizations And Associated Catastrophic Financial Burden.

ABSTRACT: An important function of health insurance is protecting enrollees from excessively burdensome charges for unanticipated medical events. Unexpected surgery can be financially catastrophic for uninsured people. By targeting the low-income uninsured population, Medicaid expansion had the potential to reduce the financial risks associated with these events. We used two data sources (state-level data for forty-four states and patient-level data for four states) to estimate the association of Medicaid expansion with uninsured surgical hospitalizations among nonelderly adults. Uninsured surgery cases were typically admitted through the emergency department-often for common emergency procedures-and 99 percent of them were estimated to be associated with financially catastrophic visit charges. We f

SUBMITTER: Albright BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10077516 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature