MILWAUKEE, WI – In two days, Trump’ Administration lawyers will go to court to overturn our health care laws. If President Trump succeeds in Texas v. United States, costs will go up, coverage will get worse, and millions of Americans will lose their health insurance.

If the Trump Administration gets its way:

GAINS IN ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE CARE, COVERAGE AND TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC DISEASES COULD BE REVERSED

 

  • Higher rates of colon cancer screening: A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in May 2019 found that the rate of colon cancer screenings among low-income adults increased substantially more in states that were very early adopters of Medicaid expansion than in states that chose not to expand. The study found that the rate of colon cancer screening increased by 8 percentage points(from 30.1 percent to 38.1 percent) in very early adoption states, compared to 2.8 points in non-expansion states (from 29.1 percent to 31.8 percent). Had the rate been the same for non-expansion states as it was for those states that expanded Medicaid early, the study predicts 355,184 additional people would have been screened.

 

  • Improved cardiovascular health: Recent research has found Medicaid expansion to be associated with higher rates of coverage for heart attack patients and fewer heart-related deaths, the leading cause of death in the United States. Research from Northwestern Universitypublished in JAMA in August 2018 found that states that had expanded Medicaid had “a significantly greater reduction” in the proportion of uninsured hospitalizations for cardiovascular events compared with states that had refused to expand Medicaid. Research from theUniversity of Pennsylvania appearing in JAMA in June 2019 has built on this research, finding that counties in Medicaid expansion states had 4.3 fewer deaths per 100,000 residents each year from cardiovascular causes after expansion than if they had followed the same trends as counties in non-expansion states.

 

  • Access to diabetes medication: More than 100 million U.S. adults have diabetes, and research suggests that Medicaid expansion may improve access to diabetes medication. A Health Affairs study published in August 2018 found a 40 percent increase in the number of prescriptions filled for diabetes drugs in Medicaid programs of states that expanded Medicaid in 2014 and 2015, compared to prior years. States that refused to expand Medicaid saw no notable increase in prescriptions filled.

 

  • Access to kidney transplants: A June 2018 Drexel University studyappearing in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) found Medicaid expansion was associated with a dramatic increase in preemptive listings for kidney transplants. Researchers found that states that fully implemented Medicaid expansion on January 1, 2014 had a 59 percent relative increase in Medicaid-covered preemptive listings from the pre-expansion to post-expansion period, compared with an 8.8 percent relative increase among Medicaid non-expansion states.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email