Medicaid plays an important role in providing health insurance to people who would otherwise face considerable financial barriers to health care, including low-income adults and people with disabilities. However, insurance coverage is just one of the many factors that contribute to whether adults can access needed health care.
In this issue brief, we update a previous MACPAC analysis using data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey to compare the demographics, health status, and difficulties accessing care for adults with Medicaid coverage compared to adults who either have private insurance or are uninsured. We also stratified the results by income to understand if individuals of similar income levels experience the same barriers regardless of coverage.
Adults with Medicaid coverage were significantly more likely to have a usual source of care and to have used health care services in the past 12 months compared to uninsured adults. However, adults with Medicaid coverage were significantly less likely to report having a usual source of care than adults with private coverage. They were also significantly more likely to report not receiving or delaying medical care, prescriptions, and dental services compared to adults with private coverage.
