Just shocking!
WASHINGTON (AP) — States that expand their Medicaid programs under President Barack Obama's health care law may end up saving thousands of lives, a medical journal report released Wednesday indicates.
Until now, the Medicaid debate has been about budgets and states' rights. But a statistical study by Harvard researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine found a 6 percent drop in the adult death rate in Arizona, Maine and New York, three states that have recently expanded coverage for low-income residents along the general lines of the federal health care law.
The study found that for every 176 adults covered under expanded Medicaid, one death per year would be prevented.
"Policymakers should be should be aware that major changes in Medicaid — either expansions or reductions in coverage — may have significant effects on the health of vulnerable populations," wrote the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-07-25/study-new-medicaid-expansion-could-be-a-lifesaver
I mean - imagine that - providing expanded and easier access to basic health care actually saves lives!! Will wonders never cease??
Quite the contrast to the T-bagger solution to ill and uninsured or under insured Americans... :
.... isn't it?
----TFG
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