Mortality and morbidity ramifications of proposed retractions in healthcare coverage for the United States

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pandey, Abhishek; Fitzpatrick, Meagan C.; Singer, Burton H.; Galvani, Alison P.
• 署名单位: Yale University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Baltimore; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-15171
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321494121
• 发表日期: 2024-04-30
• 关键词: insurance; medicare

摘要

In the absence of universal healthcare in the United States, federal programs of Medicaid and Medicare are vital to providing healthcare coverage for low - income households and elderly individuals, respectively. However, both programs are under threat, with either enacted or proposed retractions. Specifically, raising Medicare age eligibility and the addition of work requirements for Medicaid qualification have been proposed, while termination of continuous enrollment for Medicaid was recently effectuated. Here, we assess the potential impact on mortality and morbidity resulting from these policy changes. Our findings indicate that the policy change to Medicare would lead to over 17,000 additional deaths among individuals aged 65 to 67 and those to Medicaid would lead to more than 8,000 deaths among those under the age of 65. To illustrate the implications for morbidity, we further consider a case study among those people with diabetes who would be likely to lose their health insurance under the policy changes. We project that these insurance retractions would lead to the loss of coverage for over 700,000 individuals with diabetes, including more than 200,000 who rely on insulin.