Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

The Washington Post featured work by CHERP Investigator Ann-Marie Rosland, MD, MS, and her colleagues at the University of Michigan. The Michigan team found that 1 in 3 low-income people newly enrolled in an expanded Medicaid program found out they had a previously undiagnosed, and untreated, chronic illness.

CHERP’s Ann-Marie Rosland, MD, MS, is the author of an article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine: Diagnosis and Care of Chronic Health Conditions Among Medicaid Expansion Enrollees.  Link here to JGIM article.   

Before moving to CHERP and the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Rosland was part of the team from the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation that studied the impact of Medicaid expansion on low-income residents. They used surveys and interviews with people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Plan, which extended health insurance coverage to adults living near or below the poverty line.

Link here to read more about the project, collaborators and results.

From the University of Michigan:

“Nearly one in three low-income people who enrolled in Michigan’s expanded Medicaid program discovered they had a chronic illness that had never been diagnosed before, according to a new study. 

And whether it was a newly found condition or one they’d known about before, half of Medicaid expansion enrollees with chronic conditions said their overall health improved after one year of coverage or more. Nearly as many said their mental health had improved.

The study looked at common chronic diagnoses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and asthma – the kinds of conditions that can worsen over time if not found and treated. Left untreated or under-treated for years, they can heighten risks for costly health crises such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and suicide.”

Link here to read a related article in the September 30, 2019 Washington Post.

From the Washington Post:

“Poor people in Michigan with asthma and diabetes were admitted to the hospital less often after they joined Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. More than 25,000 Ohio smokers got help through the state’s Medicaid expansion that led them to quit. And around the country, patients with advanced kidney disease who went on dialysis were more likely to be alive a year later if they lived in a Medicaid-expansion state.”