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What Are the Effects of Not Expanding Medicaid?
Why Medicaid expansion represents an opportunity to improve the welfare of the poorest Americans, who are still recovering from the Great Recession.
An essential provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income Americans (those with incomes less than 138% of the federal poverty level). However, a Supreme Court decision in 2012 made Medicaid expansion optional for states and currently 38 states plus the District of Columbia have agreed to do so. From 2014 to 2016, the federal government will cover 100% of expansion cost. Afterward, federal support will decline each year, reaching and remaining at 90% by 2020.
Medicaid expansion has of course become a highly politicized issue, partly because it represents one of the few opportunities Republicans have to express disagreement with the ACA through policy, instead of voting on bills with no chance of leaving Congress.
Read more at the Brookings Institute: http://brook.gs/1B12Euw
Health Care Utilization and Cost of Diagnostic Testing for Respiratory Infections
September 17th 2025Syndromic reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction tests for respiratory infections were associated with lower health care resource utilization and costs, implicating potential for improved value in patient care.
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AI in Health Care: Balancing Governance, Innovation, and Trust
September 2nd 2025In this conversation with Reuben Daniel, associate vice president of artificial intelligence at UPMC Health Plan, we dive into how UPMC Health Plan builds trust with providers and members, discuss challenges of scaling AI effectively, and hear about concrete examples of AI's positive impact.
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Infertility Coverage Boosts ART Use and Pregnancy Success: Richard A. Brook, MS, MBA
August 26th 2025In this episode, Richard A. Brook, MS, MBA, discusses his study showing that infertility treatment coverage increases assisted reproductive technology (ART) use and improves pregnancy outcomes.
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