KHH1

More people are being diagnosed earlier in states that embraced Medicaid expansion under the health law.
BY NOAM N. LEVEY
WASHINGTON — Low-income patients with diabetes are getting better access to medical care in states that have expanded Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act, suggests a new study that provides one of the first indications of the sweeping law’s health effects.
Residents of other states are at risk of being left behind.
The number of Medicaid patients with newly identified diabetes surged 23% in states that expanded their programs, an option provided by the law, but there was virtually no increase in states that declined to expand coverage, researchers found.
“Clearly, the expansion of Medicaid has had a tremendous impact,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Harvey Kaufman, senior medical director of Quest Diagnostics. “It has helped a lot of people, and frankly helps anyone who pays.”
Early diagnosis makes diabetes easier to treat and lessens the risk of complications.
The study is published in Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Assn.
The expansion of Medicaid, the 50-year-old government health plan for the poor, is a pillar of the 2010 healthcare law, which makes billions of dollars of federal aid available to states if they open their Medicaid programs to low-income adults.
Most states historically provided Medicaid coverage only to poor children, mothers, the elderly and disabled.
Despite the new federal dollars, however, 22 states — all led by either Republican governors or legislatures, or both — have turned down the assistance, citing concerns about Medicaid’s effectiveness and cost.
To assess the potential effects of those decisions, Quest Diagnostics, a leading provider of diagnostic services, analyzed its patient database of blood tests to identify Medicaid patients who were diagnosed with diabetes for the first time in 2014, the year that Medicaid expansions began under the healthcare law.
The researchers compared the number of newly identified diabetics in 2014 with the number of newly identified diabetics in 2013.
Not only did researchers find more newly identified diabetics in states that expanded Medicaid, they also discovered that the patients were probably being diagnosed earlier.
Newly identified diabetics in Medicaid expansion states had lower hemoglobin A1c levels, a common measure of blood sugar used to assess the progress of the disease, the study found.
Early diagnosis can be crucial for diabetics, said Dr. Robert Ratner, chief scientific and medical officer at the American Diabetes Assn.
“We know from a variety of different studies that if you initiate therapy early, diabetes is easier to treat and you can stabilize the disease,” he said. That can head off more serious and costly medical complications later, such as blindness, kidney failure and cardiovascular disease.
Quest has not taken an official position on expanding Medicaid, but the researchers noted the benefits of the coverage expansion.
“We postulate that these Medicaid patients with newly identified diabetes will experience better management of their disease than if diagnoses had been made later,” they wrote in the paper.
The data also could have important implications for other chronic medical conditions that benefit from better access to medical care, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The architects of the Affordable Care Act had hoped that expanded access to health insurance, such as Medicaid, would ultimately improve Americans’ health.
A growing body of evidence supports this conclusion, though some critics of the law have continued to question the link between insurance coverage and better health outcomes.
Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn., said it was time to end that debate. “This latest study is a strong health argument against those folks who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” he said

KHH1

I know it hurts that the good of ObamaCare is starting to surface...a righty nightmare....did you all really think your lies and slurs would nullify this? If so, you all really had a grand view of yourselves.....

rodulfo-tardo

HAVING BEEN VICTIM TO THIS PREEMPTIVE DIAGNOSIS PROPAGANDA I CAN TELL YOU THERE IS A HEAVY PRICE TO PAY, DIAGNOSIS NOW IS BY A THE STATISTICS OR AVERAGE INCIDENT NOT BY THE PROPER USE OF MEDICAL FACTS, ONCE THE SUGAR // GLUCOSE GOES ABOVE 110; THEN YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY PUT ON A REGIMEN OF DRUGS THAT EVEN BY THE PROTOCOL OF HOSPITAL STAY WILL NOT NEED ANY ACTION UNLESS THESE NUMBERS ARE ABOVE 150, THE REAL ISSUE IS THE STATISTICAL DIAGNOSIS WERE IF YOU ARE "PRE-DIABETIC" YOU ARE PRESCRIBED CHOLESTEROL MEDS, THE STATIN DRUGS ARE PROVEN TO DIMINISH // ATROPHY MUSCLE MASS, WEAKENING THE BODY AND AT THE SAME TIME AFFECTS THE BRAIN'S ABILITY TO REACT. THESE DRUGS ALSO RAISE THE 'SUGAR' LEVELS AND WITH THIS GOES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS, THE THREE ARE PART OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER MEDICINE MORE LIKE A EUGENICS EXPERIMENT THAT THE HEALTH CARE IT IMPLIES WITH THIS AS A SUPPORT DRUG REGIMEN ARE GIVEN NEURONTIN [EPILEPSY MEDS] THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO ALIVATE THE PAIN OF NEUROPATHY BUT ACTUALLY INSURES THE PAIN AND SYMPTOMS REMAIN THE SAME, THIS CREATES A READY MARKET FOR DRUGS OTHERWISE USED SPARINGLY WHEN NEEDED SUDDENLY THE NEUROSURGEON TAKES OVER WHAT SHOULD BE AN ENDICRONOLOGIST'S TASK, THE OVERTLY PURPOSEFUL COMPLICATION OF A CONDITION THAT IS 90% TREATABLE WITHOUT MEDICATION KEEPS THE PATIENT IN A STATE OF DESPAIR, A STATE OF PROFESSIONAL HYPOCHONDRIA IS MAINTAINED WHILE THE PATIENTS BECOME WEAKER AND THEIR DEFENSES ARE LOWERED, THE A.C.A. IS A TOTALITARIAN OPPRESSIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE USE OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN ACCORDANCE WITH A DIAGNOSIS SYSTEM BASED ON STATISTICS [IN MY CASE, RACE, WEIGHT, RELIGION, ETHNIC BACKGROUND AND AGE] DECIDES MY CONDITION AND OVER A THREE WEEK STAY IN THE HOSPITAL I LOST 40 POUNDS LEAVING ME AT 117 FROM 150 LBS. OVER THE COURSE OF "TREATMENT" I WAS PARALYZED FOR OVER A YEAR AND A HALF BUT MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE INEXCUSABLE INDIGNITIES I AND OTHERS GET PUT TROUGH IT IS A CASE OF FEDERAL FUNDING BASED ON HOW MANY CASES OF DIABETES THEY CAN ACCOUNT FOR IRRESPECTIVE THE ACTUAL COUNT BY PRONOUNCING A CASE OF DIABETES THERE ARE THREE MORE HOSPITAL COMPONENTS THROWN IN, ENDOCRINOLOGY, CARDIOLOGY, NEUROLOGY AND THE AMOUNT OF PAPERS TO JUSTIFY FEDERAL AID, THIS IS A CONFIDENCE GAME THAT BEGAN WITH HILLARY CARE WHEN THE HIGHER THE INCIDENCE OF DIABETES THE HIGHER THE COST OF MEDICAL CARE WENT YOU CAN SAY WHAT YOU WILL BUT THE PRECONCEPTION OF DIABETES GIVES A FREE PASS TO TRIPLE MEDICATE CREATING A POPULATION IN FEAR OF A DISEASE THAT IS EASILY DIAGNOSED TREATED AND EXPLOITED AS MUCH AS THEY PLEASE.

KHH1

So what is your preferred alternative...for people not to have no treatment available....i ahve read the same about cancer being a cash cow and that why no cure has ever been put forth..

rodulfo-tardo

LIBERALLY DOSED DEFENDERS OF THE FUEHRER DON'T SEE THE OBVIOUS JUST THE EXTREMES, GO ON DRINK YOUR KOOL AID AND MAKE SURE TO CORRECTLY MEDICATE, CHANGING THE SUBJECT WORKS WONDERS WITH GOLDFISH PROVEN TO HAVE A 3 SECOND ATTENTION SPAN, THEY AT LEAST HAVE THE EXCUSE THEY SWIM SHIT AND EAT IN THE SAME PLACE WHILE SUSPENDED IN THEIR OWN WATER BOWL.

KHH1

why are you shouting?(caps)

son of witless

That is not a fair statement. Cancer has many forms and new treatments come out every year. There are people who are cured or have their lives extended, where years ago there was no hope.

rodulfo-tardo

ONCE YOU LOWER THE NUMBERS ACCEPTABLE THERE IS GOING TO BE A PRE-PLANNED INCREASE IN THE PRE-DIABETES STATISTICS, IRRESPECTIVE WHAT THESE NUMBERS SHOW AT THIS POINT THE "EPIDEMIC" PROPORTIONS OF DIABETES AFFLICTED PEOPLE ARE AT A 60% OF THE TOTAL U.S. POPULATION BUT THIS CAME ABOUT ONLY AFTER THE GLUCOSE NUMBERS WERE DROPPED FROM 150 TO 110 TO THIS DAY HOSPITAL PROTOCOL EXEMPTS ANY INSULIN SHOTS IF THESE NUMBERS ARE BELOW 150 NOW WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? POOR OR RICH IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE THE TREATMENT PROTOCOL 'IN WARD' HAS NOT CHANGED AND REMAINS AT 150 NOT 110 AS THEY HAVE YOU BELIEVE IS THE TARGET NUMBER TO HAVE. I'VE TRIED ENGLISH WOULD IT BE EASIER IN SPANISH, GERMAN OR ITALIAN?

KHH1

diabetes is even more manageable.........

son of witless

Had many relatives with it. Not so many anymore.

Antisocialist Loc: Florida

Keep your O'skidmark / Biden bumper sticker on your car after this thing collapses due to the stupid assholes that write it, the stupid assholes that passed it, and the stupid assholes that believed for one second it would ever work.

KHH1

hateful disappointed man....this thing is moving forward despite your 50 votes, your SC challenge and the whole nine...you don't get it huh?....you would think you saw a pattern after 50 damn votes...are you allTHAT slow?