Medicaid Expansion and the Health of Poor People

How much health insurance improves the health of poor Americans is much disputed, but here is a new study for the plus side:

Researchers surveyed nearly 9,000 low-income adults in three states that made different choices with respect to Medicaid expansion: Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid eligibility to include more low-income adults; Arkansas, which used federal funding to purchase private plans for low-income adults; and Texas, which chose not to expand Medicaid at all. By 2015, two years after coverage expansion, low-income adults in Kentucky and Arkansas received more primary and preventive care, visited emergency departments less often, and reported better health than their counterparts in Texas.