Medicaid effect: wealth, not health protection.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Brief article

MEDICAID, the health program for disabled and low-income individuals, might not actually make people healthier, according to a study published in May. A team of health researchers led by Katherine Baicker and Amy Finkelstein of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a lottery to randomly select thousands of low-income individuals in Oregon to receive Medicaid. That group was compared with a randomly selected control group who didn't get the program.

The researchers found that the Medicaid beneficiaries used far more health services, at far greater cost, than those not selected for the program. They were also significantly less likely to screen positive for depression, and they faced fewer health related financial shocks than their counterparts in the control group. The Medicaid beneficiaries also reported that they felt healthier.

But it may have been only a feeling. The...