Expanding Medicaid has not affected healthcare access

Fears that expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act will hamper access to care for those already in the program, and overwhelm emergency services, are largely unfounded, a new study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found. The study appears in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Despite the size and scope of the Medicaid program - it was created in 1965 and today serves approximately 20% of the U.S. population - there is relatively little information on how changes in Medicaid eligibility affect access to primary care and the use of services. The study is believed to be one of the first to forecast the likely impact of Medicaid's expansion on individuals with existing coverage. Researchers studied enrollees in 10 states where Medicaid, which serves low-income families and individuals, has already expanded. They found that there was no detrimental effect on access to care for these previously enrolled Medicaid recipients. In fact, the proportion of enrollees reporting poor access to health care actually declined slightly, from 8.5% to 7.