The Oregon Experiment
The Oregon Medicaid program gave policymakers a unique snapshot of what could happen to the nation when Medicaid coverage increased with the ACA. In 2008, Oregon initiated an expansion of their Medicaid program. The limited expansion of the Medicaid program used a lottery drawing from a waiting list of low-income adults (Taubman, Allen, Wright, Baicker, & Finkelstein, 2014). The expansion program was for the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) Standard, which provided benefits to low-income adults who were not categorically eligible for Oregon’s traditional Medicaid program (Taubman et al., 2014).
Background
The OHP sustained substantial cutbacks in 2003, which resulted in the disenrollment of more than 50,000 beneficiaries (Lowe, McConnell, Vogt, & Smith, 2008). As well, the OHP implemented copayments for many services. For example, new copayments included $5 for primary care visits, $50 for ED visits, and $250 for hospitalizations (Lowe et al., 2008). These cutbacks and copayments were in an attempt to save government money spent on health care, but the backfire of …show more content…
Some of the increase in numbers is a direct result of the baby boomer generation getting older. As people age, they develop more health problems, thus resulting in a greater number of ED visitations. Another factor is that majority of hospital admissions must go through the ED instead of a direct admit from a primary care office. Finally, the ACA provided millions of Americans with coverage; now that people have coverage it makes health care more affordable, including ED visits. According to a recent report, Medicaid beneficiaries had higher ED utilization overall (39.6%) compared to individuals with private insurance (17.7%) (Cheung et al., 2012), so the ACA increased the number of Medicaid beneficiaries, thus increasing the number of ED
The Oregon Medicaid program gave policymakers a unique snapshot of what could happen to the nation when Medicaid coverage increased with the ACA. In 2008, Oregon initiated an expansion of their Medicaid program. The limited expansion of the Medicaid program used a lottery drawing from a waiting list of low-income adults (Taubman, Allen, Wright, Baicker, & Finkelstein, 2014). The expansion program was for the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) Standard, which provided benefits to low-income adults who were not categorically eligible for Oregon’s traditional Medicaid program (Taubman et al., 2014).
Background
The OHP sustained substantial cutbacks in 2003, which resulted in the disenrollment of more than 50,000 beneficiaries (Lowe, McConnell, Vogt, & Smith, 2008). As well, the OHP implemented copayments for many services. For example, new copayments included $5 for primary care visits, $50 for ED visits, and $250 for hospitalizations (Lowe et al., 2008). These cutbacks and copayments were in an attempt to save government money spent on health care, but the backfire of …show more content…
Some of the increase in numbers is a direct result of the baby boomer generation getting older. As people age, they develop more health problems, thus resulting in a greater number of ED visitations. Another factor is that majority of hospital admissions must go through the ED instead of a direct admit from a primary care office. Finally, the ACA provided millions of Americans with coverage; now that people have coverage it makes health care more affordable, including ED visits. According to a recent report, Medicaid beneficiaries had higher ED utilization overall (39.6%) compared to individuals with private insurance (17.7%) (Cheung et al., 2012), so the ACA increased the number of Medicaid beneficiaries, thus increasing the number of ED