Understanding the Impact of Medicaid and Misinterpretation of Studies

This chapter discusses the importance of Katherine Baker and the Oregon Medicaid study, as well as the misinterpretation of its results. It explores the findings of the study, which showed that Medicaid improved healthcare utilization, protected against catastrophic expenses, and had positive effects on depression and self-reported health. The chapter also analyzes the impact of Medicaid expansion on mortality rates and criticizes the focus on mortality as the sole metric for assessing healthcare programs.