Medicaid beneficiaries are sicker than their privately insured counterparts, according to a Gallup poll, with more than 30 percent of Medicaid patients classified as obese and nearly a quarter being treated for depression and hypertension.
The results are largely unsurprising as research has historically shown poverty and poor health are correlated, but the report notes that many of the conditions with disparate frequencies between Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients are chronic yet preventable. Medicaid adults were far more likely to smoke, with 36 percent of them reporting the habit compared with 19 percent of adults on average. Exercise and healthy eating were about as common across all insurance populations, according to Gallup.
Gallup estimates 4.5 percent of American adults are enrolled in Medicaid, costing the federal government a projected $265 billion in 2013.
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The results are largely unsurprising as research has historically shown poverty and poor health are correlated, but the report notes that many of the conditions with disparate frequencies between Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients are chronic yet preventable. Medicaid adults were far more likely to smoke, with 36 percent of them reporting the habit compared with 19 percent of adults on average. Exercise and healthy eating were about as common across all insurance populations, according to Gallup.
Gallup estimates 4.5 percent of American adults are enrolled in Medicaid, costing the federal government a projected $265 billion in 2013.
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