Debates over whether having health insurance actually improves peoples' lives have been raging since the formulation of the Affordable Care Act. Ford School professor Helen Levy was quoted by The Washington Post in an article examining trends in the research, which she says now has a clear consensus.
The article cited a review she and fellow University of Michigan professor Thomas Buchmueller published in the Annual Review of Public Health, titled "The Impact of Health Insurance on Mortality." In the publication, they observed that evidence demonstrating an improvement in health due to health insurance has grown significantly stronger in the past 15 years.
"The political fight over health care is still going today, as a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats over funding for federal health care subsidies and planned cuts to Medicaid fuels the longest government shutdown in U.S. history," The Washington Post wrote. Advocates for health care expansion are concerned that these cuts could directly impact mortality.
The findings from the scientific community, therefore, are significant. Levy was quoted, saying, "This is a big deal. . .We know health insurance saves lives. Full stop." The policy debate has not yet caught up to the research. Levy and Buchmueller continue to do research on the impact of health insurance policy with the goal of informing policy decisions."
Read the full article here.
