What Is the Link Between Having Health Insurance and Enjoying Better Health and Finances?
Early Results of the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment
People with health insurance are much more likely than the uninsured to utilize preventive services and prescription drugs, and they are less likely to incur medical debts.
These are the key takeaways from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment—an unprecedented approach to understanding the connections between health insurance and improved health and finances. People with health insurance reported better health, both mental and physical, and better access to care than those without insurance.
In 2008, Oregon created a lottery system giving some uninsured, low-income adults on a waiting list the chance to apply for Medicaid. To qualify for the program, an applicant needed to be:
- an adult 19 to 64 years of age
- a resident of Oregon
- living on an income below the federal poverty level, with assets less than $2,000.
Nearly 90,000 people signed up for the lottery; 35,000 were selected. By randomly assigning health insurance to some but not others—something that has never been done in the United States—the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment established true treatment and control groups. This provided a unique opportunity to determine the effects of expanding access to public health care insurance on the use of health care services, financial strain, and health of low-income adults, using the gold standard of scientific evidence.
Video Backgrounder
Medicaid Leadership Institute
Watch interviews with state Medicaid directors Darin Gordon (Tennessee), Judy Mohr Peterson (Oregon) and Toby Douglas (California).
Health Policy Snapshot
Two-page briefs providing insight and analysis on key issues affecting health and health care in the United States.
View all