Medicaid

When and Why Medicaid Was Passed into Law

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965, which was enacted under Title XIX of the Social Security Act (National Archives, 2022). This program was a collaborative federal and state government project to offer health insurance to low-income individuals and families, particularly the elderly, handicapped, and children. The key objective of Medicaid was to eliminate the disparity in healthcare access to vulnerable populations who cannot afford private insurance coverage and guarantee that these groups can access the care that they need.

The objective of this initiative was to alleviate the burden that individual states placed on their budgets by funding this initiative with federal matching funds in order to deliver services to those citizens who were eligible. Medicaid proved to be an essential pillar of the American healthcare sector that served as a lifesaver to millions of Americans, and mostly to those with less financial backing.

Effect of Medicaid on Healthcare Provision

The introduction of Medicaid has tremendously transformed the landscape of healthcare access in the United States, particularly for low-income individuals and other vulnerable populations. By covering the necessary medical services, including hospital care, visits to doctors, preventive care, and long-term care services, Medicaid has greatly improved the accessibility of most medical care services to individuals who would otherwise not even afford such services. Lin et al. (2021) also show that through this program, the health inequality gap, particularly for the residents of economically disadvantaged rural and urban areas, has been bridged.

Medicaid has improved health outcomes in underserved communities by eliminating preventable diseases and medical complications through the provision of needed services. Nonetheless, although Medicaid has achieved much, the program is still struggling with its limited funding and variation in the provision of quality care between states since the state controls the program, and some offer their citizens high-quality services and easier access than others.

Effectiveness of Medicaid

Medicaid has been instrumental in providing healthcare to individuals with lower incomes, although its performance may vary widely between states. This difference is highly attributed to differences in funding, eligibility criteria, and the variety of services offered among the states. On the positive side, Medicaid has enhanced access to care by reducing the number of uninsured Americans and providing a wide variety of health services to those who qualify (McInerney et al., 2020).

Nevertheless, issues like long queues in service, poor levels of reimbursement of health providers, and inconsistency in access to care across geographical areas continue to emerge. Medicaid has reached more people with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Still, this program continues to encounter challenges in delivering timely and high-quality care, particularly in its expansion states, more than in its non-expansion states.

Gaps in Medicaid

Despite the numerous benefits of Medicaid that have enhanced access to care among low-income families, various gaps in healthcare policy still have to be filled. One of them is that Medicaid expansion varies widely among states; some states have declined to expand Medicaid under the ACA, and millions of low-income adults remain uninformed (Graves et al., 2020). Also, the complexity of the program, varying eligibility requirements, and benefits by state can be confusing and a limitation to care.

Another gap is the difficulty in responding to the escalating needs of long-term care services, especially among the elderly, which Medicaid has only a partial capacity to manage. Lastly, Medicaid has persisting issues of lower reimbursement rates compared to Medicare or other private insurance, which detracts from treatment quality and accessibility. To enhance universal access to healthcare for all low-income Americans, such gaps in the coverage of Medicaid and its sustainability should be addressed through policy reforms.

References

Graves, J. A., Hatfield, L. A., Blot, W., Keating, N. L., & McWilliams, J. M. (2020). Medicaid expansion slowed rates of health decline for low-income adults in southern states. Health Affairs, 39(1), 67–76. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00929

Lin, Y., Monnette, A., & Shi, L. (2021). Effects of Medicaid expansion on poverty disparities in health insurance coverage. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01486-3

McInerney, M., Winecoff, R., Ayyagari, P., Simon, K., & Bundorf, M. K. (2020). ACA Medicaid expansion associated with increased Medicaid participation and improved health among near-elderly: Evidence from the health and retirement study. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 57, 004695802093522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958020935229

National Archives. (2022, February 8). Medicare and Medicaid Act (1965). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/medicare-and-medicaid-act

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Health Care Policy Forum: 

Use Internet and scholarly resources to learn about either Medicare or Medicaid. When and why was your chosen program passed into law? How did the program affect the provision of health care in the United States? How would you rate this program in terms of effectiveness? What are some “gaps” in health care policy that still need to be filled?

Medicaid