Medicaid enrollees receive better or similar care as the uninsured and privately insured, suggests a recent study from The Commonwealth Fund.
For the study, researchers examined responses to The Commonwealth Fund's 2016 Biennial Health Insurance Survey on issues such as care access, quality of care and medical bill problems. The survey, conducted last year by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, included more than 6,000 U.S. adults.
Here are five study findings.
1. Most Medicaid enrollees (91 percent) and privately insured respondents (93 percent) reported having a regular source of care, compared to 77 percent of uninsured individuals.
2. Medicaid enrollees and privately insured respondents also rated the quality of their care similarly. Fifty-seven percent and 52 percent of those groups, respectively, rated quality of healthcare received in the past year as excellent or very good. Only 40 percent of uninsured respondents said the same.
3. Medicaid enrollees did, however, report securing same-day appointments at a somewhat lower rate than privately insured respondents — 45 percent and 53 percent, respectively. Still, Medicaid enrollees surpassed the uninsured (41 percent).
4. The study also found Medicaid enrollees and privately insured respondents reported using preventive care services at significantly higher rates than the uninsured.
5. Additionally, Medicaid enrollees were significantly less likely than either privately insured or uninsured respondents to report having difficulty paying medical bills within the past year, researchers said. Thirty-five percent of uninsured respondents said they had problems paying or were unable to pay their medical bills, compared to 20 percent of privately insured respondents and 12 percent of Medicaid enrollees.
Read the full study findings here.
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