Expanding Medicaid will lower health care costs for all Iowans & the state
Senator Jack Hatch
(DES MOINES) Expanding Medicaid coverage to nearly 80,000 additional Iowans will lower health care costs for all Iowans, the physician director of primary care services for Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines said Monday.
“Hospitals are required by law to treat people who need medical care, regardless of whether they are insured,” said Dr. Steve Eckstat, Vice President of Primary Care Services at Mercy Medical Center. “When free care is provided to uninsured Iowans, those costs must be recovered by charging more to Iowans who have insurance. Expanding Medicaid would significantly reduce the number of Iowans without health insurance and significantly reduce the cost of uncompensated care that is currently passed on Iowans who currently have health insurance.”
Uncompensated care happens when an uninsured patient is treated by a hospital or other provider without reimbursement to the provider. A study by the Iowa Hospital Association found this type of care cost Iowa hospitals more than $851 million in 2010, the most recent available figures.
Eckstat said uncompensated care is often provided in a hospital’s emergency room, which is at the more expensive end of the cost spectrum when compared with routine or preventive health care.
“Bringing uninsured Iowans into the health care system through Expanded Medicaid is so much smarter than sending people to the emergency room,” Eckstat said. “Our effort to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state would take a big step forward when all Iowans started receiving regular checkups focused on preventive care.”
Senator Jack Hatch, chair of the Iowa Senate’s Health and Human Services Budget Subcommittee, said the federal commitment to fund almost all of the cost of Medicaid expansion would result in a “health care windfall” for Iowa.
“It is clear we have a lot to gain from Medicaid expansion,” Hatch said. “The non-partisan Urban Institute says Iowa could save as much as $1.9 billion from 2014 to 2019, or $316 million annually, thanks to Medicaid Expansion.”
The report explained the expansion could mean Iowa would save General Fund money because:
- Many patients currently receiving services with a significant matching share from the state will have it almost entirely paid for by the federal government.
- Significant numbers of mental health patients would be covered under Medicaid or private insurance, creating a savings for the state’s already overburdened mental health treatment system.
- The number of uninsured Iowans would decrease and costs associated with uncompensated care would be shifted to the state and private insurers less frequently, as discussed by Dr. Eckstat.
Senator Hatch also reacted to new figures released July 5, 2012, from The Urban Institute reporting that 80,000 Iowans would be denied coverage if the state would choose not to participate in the Expanded Medicaid program.
“It’s easy for politicians to look at this and see only numbers,” Hatch said, “It’s much more compelling when we can think about individuals and see the faces of the Iowans left behind. For Iowa to reject this potential health care windfall and fail to join the expanded Medicaid program is not only a bad financial decision but an absolute moral failure when it comes to providing basic health care for the poorest Iowans. This makes no sense at all.”