The Economist | 10/21/2019
Poor Americans are less likely to be thrown out of their homes if they have health insurance
IN ABRAHAM MASLOW’S hierarchy of needs—a well-known theory in psychology—people worry about their health only after they have secured food and shelter. In America, the opposite can be true. Those without health insurance are at greater risk of losing their homes. That is the conclusion of recent research in the American Journal of Public Health. It finds that, in states with less access to Medicaid, a low-cost health-care scheme for the poor, rates of eviction are higher than in states where it more freely available.
The research makes use of a natural experiment that followed the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as Obamacare. One of the pillars of Barack Obama’s health-care reform was an expansion of Medicaid to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. But in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not force states to take part. Many with Republican governors or legislatures opted out. The expansion of coverage in some states but not others has allowed researchers to study the programme’s influence on measures of health, poverty and financial well-being.
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Naomi Cohen | journalist 