Medicaid Plan Slashes Medical Debt in States

As per the trusted sources of information, the expansion of Medicaid does not just provides health insurance to several more people but also looks like it will help in cutting the medical debt in a large amount as reported by the new study that has been carried out.

The Affordable Care Act had offered a huge infusion of the federal money to the states in order to expand the Medicaid eligibility to the people who have low incomes. Almost 30 states agreed to make the deal without any delay in the year 2014. Since then, the states have been witnessing a fall in the medical debt by around 44%, which is a significant fall than it was seen before the states agree to expand the program. The states which did not agree witnessed a fall of around 10 percent during the same time frame.

The researchers of the report stated that the non medical debt had gone down in similar amounts in its expansion as well as the non-expansion rates in the states over the time period they have studied which is from 2009 to 2020. This gave them the confidence that the Medicaid expansion made the difference in the amount of medical debt among the people.

The medical debt is not a great thing for the finances of the individuals or even to their credit rating. It is eventually bad for their health. As per the study by researchers, the high medical debt is associated with decline in the usage of healthcare facilities and worse mental health among the people.