Monterey, CA Death Rates Reduced By Medicaid/Medi-Cal Expansion

by Richard Kuehn on 07/30/12

View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California  

I wrote yesterday on my blog  about thirteen states, including California, which have announced that they are making major cuts to their Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) programs, tightening eligibility requirements and/or paying health providers less.  The cuts will impact 60 million of the poorest people in this country.  This situation is really depressing news given the report released this week by the New England Journal of Medicine which said that states which opted for larger Medicaid programs had lower death rates.  These cuts are literally impacting peoples lives.  Prior research has shown  that expansion programs in the 1980's of Medicaid reduced mortality rates in children.  But the New England Journal of Medicine study is the first to associate reduced death rates in adults with an increase in Medicaid/Medi-Cal benefits.  Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at three states that expanded Medicaid (Arizona, Maine & New York) compared with four nearby states that didn't (New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania).  Death rates fell by 19.6 per 100,000 adults in the states which expanded.  The study's lead author is an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services on temporary assignment and he returns to Harvard on September 1.  Not surprisingly, mortality declines were the greatest among senior adults as well as non-whites and residents of poorer counties.  Alliance Home Health and Family inHome Caregiving, our two platinum sponsors, see clients daily struggling to get by and needing help in the home.  But with the Medi-Cal system under duress and many people still reeling from the recession, there are so many seniors in need.  Please help us help those who can't afford private care and aren't getting the care they need under the current Medi-Cal and Medicaid system.  Click on the donate button if you can help us.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of HandsTo Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.