Expanding Medicaid Hasn’t Improved U.S. Healthcare

The coverage isn’t great, most enrollees don’t need it anyway, and they can easily re-enroll if they do.

By John C. Goodman. Excerpts:

"While it’s true that many people will lose insurance, that doesn’t mean a significant loss of healthcare."

"most of those who will lose coverage are almost certain to be healthy and not in need of medical care."

"Nearly five million of these are able-bodied people without dependents"

"if people who lose coverage later get seriously sick, they can easily re-enroll and get Medicaid to pay their bills retroactively. There’s a three-month look-back period for coverage." 

"The CBO estimates that 7.3 million people on the ObamaCare exchanges will soon be without coverage for two reasons: a Biden-era expansion of enhanced tax credits will expire at the end of the year, and the One Big Beautiful Bill’s increased administrative barriers to enrollment. Those who end up without insurance because of this will almost all be healthy, because they are the most likely to give up in the face of more paperwork. One of the reasons health insurers are announcing an 18% increase in premiums in next year’s exchanges is because they expect healthy people to leave, making the remaining pool sicker and more costly."

"If someone who drops out of ObamaCare gets sick, it isn’t difficult to get back on."

"he can qualify for immediate enrollment if there is a “qualifying event” such as getting married, having a baby or moving to a new ZIP Code."

"all that spending has resulted in very little benefit—including for enrollees."

"Those who had enrolled had less financial stress and were less likely to be depressed, but there was no significant improvement in their physical health."