Medicaid & Obamacare
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I–VT) claims the “government shutdown is all about whether Republicans will get away” with “devastating cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act” that will cause “tens of thousands of Americans” to “die unnecessarily.”
IN FACT, scholarly studies and hard data reveal no credible evidence that Medicaid or Obamacare save lives. Here are the specifics:
- A gold standard randomized controlled trial of Medicaid in Oregon published by the New England Journal of Medicine “showed that Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health,” much less saved lives.
- A study published by the journal Health Services Research found “no indication that lack of insurance has any effect” on people who died of causes that are generally preventable with better healthcare.
- Life expectancy stagnated in the wake of Obamacare, despite 20 million people gaining health insurance and contrary to the modern norm of rising lifespans. Because association does not prove causation, Obamacare may not be the root cause of this stagnation, but it either hurt, failed to help, or was overwhelmed by other factors.
- Studies that accord with Sanders’ claim are plagued by fatal flaws like the conflation of association with causation, the exclusion of relevant data, and the use of unrealistic assumptions.
Furthermore, Sanders’ rhetoric about “devastating cuts” is inconsistent with the details of these reforms.
