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Insurance Key to Health for Poor Americans
A National Bureau of Economic Research study has confirmed it: When you give poor people access to health insurance, they end up happier and healthier. Because people without health insurance tend to be poorer, it's hard to say whether their relatively poor health is due strictly to health insurance access or if other factors associated with poverty are to blame. The state of Oregon held a lottery in 2008 for access to its previously closed Medicaid program. A year later the researchers were encouraged to find that those impoverished Oregonians given access to the state health insurance program were indeed more likely to have access to health care and were generally healthier than those who didn't have insurance. While the difference in mortality rate was insignificant, self-reported physical and mental health was indeed significantly better for those with access to insurance.
Source:The Street