5 Things the Oregon Medicaid Study Tells Us About American Health Care

1. Preventive care isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: The Oregon study found that people on Medicaid got more preventive care than those in the uninsured control group
2. We need more quality control in medicine: The fact that payments to doctors and hospitals don’t depend on health outcomes in most cases is an enormous problem
3. Patients need to be more involved in managing their own health: Chronic conditions have a lot to do with weight, diet and adherence to medication regimens, which patients can control
4. Medicaid is not enough: Getting on the Medicaid rolls doesn’t automatically eliminate factors like lack of education, lack of access to healthy food and household financial strain
5. Insurance is about health, but it’s also about money: The latest results from Oregon showed that being on Medicaid “nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenditures"

Source: Time
Source URL: http://nation.time.com/2013/05/02/5-things-the-oregon-medica...

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