Medicaid Expansion -- Having health care helps prevent homelessness

[Hermit-The-Prog]

Medicaid expansion continues to reap social benefits: Having health care helps prevent homelessness

Joan McCarter


The decision by United States Chief Justice John Roberts to split the Affordable Care Act baby in 2012, upholding the constitutionality of the law as a whole but letting the states decide if they would implement the Medicaid expansion part of it, has been horrible for the people in those deeply Republican states that refused to take the expansion. The only upside is that it provides a pretty much unprecedented opportunity for social scientists to determine precisely what benefits affordable health care brings to society.

It created a basic lab. Neighboring states with matching demographic profiles could be compared side by side: those that expanded Medicaid compared to what would be sort of a control group, those that didn't. One of the findings so far is that expanding Medicaid increases voter participation. People are more invested in their government and society when they both see the benefits of it in their lives and have more time and energy and health to devote to it. A new study, reflecting the kind of stability that access to affordable health care gives people, shows that it is preventing homelessness.

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/1/1818300/-Medicaid-expansion-continues-to-reap-social-benefits-Having-health-care-helps-prevent-homelessness

[Hermit-The-Prog]

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