The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 provided federal funds to states to expand Medicaid. Between 2010 and 2016, 30 states and the District of Columbia took advantage of Medicaid expansion. Two recent studies investigated whether and to what degree Medicaid expansion improved health outcomes for low-income, middle-aged adults.
A study by Khatana and colleagues found that, between 2010 and 2016, annual cardiovascular mortality rates in the expansion states decreased slightly for adults (ages 45 to 64 years), but significantly increased in residents of the nonexpansion states. A study by Fedewa and colleagues found improvements in the rate of screening for breast and colorectal cancer among residents (ages 50 to 64 years) of Medicaid expansion states but observed that these improvements did not begin immediately. The authors suggest that "the full impact of Medicaid expansions on cancer screening may not yet be fully visible and the previously reported modest improvements in early stage at diagnosis for screen detectable cancers could progress further."-Frank Brodhead
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