Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence From the First Year
Health Econ (ECON 418)
Assignment: In approximately 500 words, summarize the paper, The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year.
Be sure to summarize:
• the benefit people who got access to Oregon Health Plan (OHP) received,
• the reason is it important that access was determined by lottery,
• the effect of access on o health care utilization, o financial strain and o self-reported health
To Submit:
Write your summary in a Word document.
Save that document to your own files.
Go to the “Assignments Tab” for our course in Moodle.
Click “Submission for Finkelstein Paper” to upload your work.
Grading:
• A+ Shows deeper understanding. Paper will be clear, concise and correct.
• A- The paper is technically correct, but quotes heavily from the authors.
• B+ The paper is unclear and does not show a full understanding of the reading
• B- The paper is unclear and has errors in some places.
• C+ The paper is unclear, has errors, is too short to fully describe the reading.
• C- The paper is unclear and has errors. There is little correct analysis of the reading.
• D The paper shows little effort was given to the assignment. It is wrong and unclear in many places.
Tips for reading academic papers:
1. Read the abstract fist. The abstract is a summary paragraph at the beginning of the article.
2. Read the introduction.
3. Read the conclusion.
4. Read the first sentence of each paragraph.
5. Read the entire paper.
6. For this paper you do not need to focus on Section III: Data, or Section IV: Empirical Framework.
Citation:
Finkelstein, A. et al. (2012). The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, 127(3), 1057-1106. doi:10.3386/w17190
Reading Summary
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Reading Summary
In the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year, Finkelstein et al. (2012) analyze the impacts of a 2008 Medicaid application targeting low-income and uninsured Oregon residents. The article indicates that the selection criteria included a lottery, and the objective was to comprehend how public health insurance availability would impact financial positions, health outcomes, and the use of care among low-income adults in Oregon. People who got access to Oregon Health Plan registered considerably higher levels of healthcare use, which ranged from reduced debts drawn from medical expenditures to seeking preventive and primary care. The authors add that the treatment group registered improved health, including physical and mental, which indicates that the experiment had a positive impact on the low-income adults in Oregon.
The study reveals that exposing the treatment group to Medicaid improved health outcomes and reduced financial constrain, especially among the low-income population, which would ultimately impede self-reported health, among other consequences. In fact, within a year, the authors established that self-reported health and healthcare utilization increased among the treatment group. Unlike the control group that was denied the insurance, the people in the lottery selection recorded improved numbers of outpatient and in-patient care and the reliance on prescription drugs. Additionally, since insurance catered for most of the medical bills, instances of medical debts were reduced within the treatment population. Lastly, the authors found that the introduction of Medicaid to low-income populations improved their well-being since they easily self-reported instances of mental and physical ill-health, thus prompting swift interventions rath...