On December 8, 2024, Paragon’s research paper “What Matters for Health: Insurance is Less Important Than You Think,” by Dr. Joel Zinberg and Liam Sigaud, was referenced in The Wall Street Journal.
From the article:
The U.S. is spending $2 trillion more on healthcare than in 2010. Yet Americans aren’t healthier, as a new paper by the Paragon Health Institute observes. Mortality rates for 25- to 64-year-olds from major medical causes, such as hypertensive diseases, diabetes and neurologic conditions, climbed between 2009 and 2019.
…
One problem is that simply having insurance doesn’t change people’s behavior. It does, however, cause them to use more care. This is a particular problem in Medicaid, since beneficiaries often rush to the emergency room for nonemergencies because they don’t have deductibles or co-pays.
Another problem: The nearly 100 million Americans on Medicaid or tightly regulated and generously subsidized exchange plans struggle to find doctors to treat them. Physician access for Medicaid patients has long been limited owing to the program’s low reimbursement rates.
It has gotten worse since ObamaCare expanded eligibility, as states have tried to hold down Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursements. A 2019 study found that patients were only half as likely to get an appointment with a doctor compared with privately insured patients before the law passed. Post-ObamaCare, they were less than one-third as likely. Medicaid is insurance in name only.
