RESEARCH TO POLICY: HEALTH INSURANCE

MIT economists Finkelstein and Gruber demonstrate the health and financial benefits of Medicaid 

 

 

 
 

                 Landmark study shows the effects of Medicaid:
                 better health and financial security for the poor, 
                 more bills paid for hospitals and doctors.

 


 

New York Times Editorial 
The Value of Medicaid

"Critics of Medicaid have made the outlandish claim that it provides such poor care that enrollees would be better off having no coverage....Those claims have now been refuted by a new study...conducted under the leadership of Amy Finkelstein, an economics professor at MIT, and Katherine Baicker, a Harvard health economics professor who was an adviser to President George W. Bush. It found that Medicaid patients reported both better health and more financial stability than uninsured poor people."
Full editorial at The New York Times  



Story at MIT News

Medicaid's impact, finally measured 

"Enrolling in Medicaid significantly improves the overall health and financial stability of low-income Americans, and leads to more bills paid for hospitals and doctors, according to a new study co-authored by MIT researchers. The research shows that Medicaid recipients are far more likely to receive health care than the uninsured."
Full story by Peter Dizikes at MIT News

 

Suggested Links

Amy Finkelstein
Department of Economics webpage

Jonathan Gruber  
Department of Economics webpage