How Medicaid and ACA cuts will affect work comp
Key takeaways from Dr Sommers' keynote
First, reality is people who have health insurance are healthier than those who don’t. Quantitative research indicates having health insurance improves health - and people with health insurance improves self-reported health status.
People with insurance felt better – and that question predicts mortality.
Those in “poor health” die at much higher rates younger than those who report good health. And it is cost-effective – think of expansion as a cost-effective way to improve health and reduce mortality.
Due to expansion of the ACA and Medicaid, people were getting healthier and living longer – then Trump II came along and is reversing much of that progress - in increasing the number of people who have health insurance - that has been made.
Today we are seeing very large health insurance premium increases and significant reductions in the number of people insured - to date, at least a million have lost coverage…estimates are 3 – 4 million will lose coverage this year.
My interpretation - what’s happening today is a low-key undercutting of the ACA – given high public support for ACA Republicans are not directly attacking the ACA, but are doing their best to kill it with the death of a thousand cuts.
Oh, and despite what some say, undocumented immigrants have NEVER BEEN ELIGIBLE FOR ACA COVERAGE.
Work requirements
Republicans’ OBBBA includes significant requirements for Medicaid recipients to document their eligibility - which involves access to technology, knowledge that the requirements actually exist, access to documents, and a device that reliably connects the recipient to the internet.
Before the OBBBA Arkansas experimented with requiring work status verification for a defined population; The net result was it removed almost 1 of every 5 eligible people.
Extrapolating this out, 5 – 6 million will lose coverage due to red tape – many will already be working but not able to or aware that they need to qualify periodically.
Implications for comp
Research looked at the link between growth in enrollment in High deductible healthplans and work comp costs…this was linked to 1.6% to 3.2% more spending in WC in 2010s.