Fewer Texans having trouble paying medical bills than pre-Obamacare

What else can you say but “Thanks, Obama!”

Fewer Texans say they have problems paying their medical bills in 2015 compared to 2013, according to a new report released by EHF and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The report found that since enrollment began in the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace (ACA), the percentage of Texans who reported problems paying health care bills dropped almost 15 percent (25.8 percent in 2013 to 22 percent in 2015). The drop was consistent across income levels and health insurance status, and corresponds with national data showing the percentage of adults reporting problems paying medical bills dropped across the U.S.

Data released this week in a nationwide Kaiser Family Foundation/New York Times survey show 26 percent of U.S. adults reported having problems paying medical bills in the past year.

“The fact that Texans had fewer problems paying their medical bills in 2015 is good news,” said Vivian Ho, the chair in health economics at Rice’s Baker Institute and director of the institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences, a professor of economics at Rice and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “One reason fewer Texans are having problems paying medical bills is because more Texans now have health insurance. However, one in five Texans still has problems affording health care. And it’s no surprise our data show the uninsured and those with lower incomes continue to struggle paying those bills more than anyone else.”

The report found 30 percent of uninsured Texans reported problems paying their health care costs in 2015, down from 35 percent in 2013. Researchers found just 20 percent of those with health insurance said they had problems paying medical bills last year, down from 23 percent in 2013.

When it comes to skipping health care services because of cost, the report found uninsured Texans are more likely to skip all services (primary care, specialist care, prescription drugs, etc.) than those with insurance. However, researchers discovered fewer uninsured Texans said they skipped getting care in 2015 compared to 2013.

“On the whole, uninsured Texans reported fewer problems with affording health care in 2015,” said Elena Marks, EHF’s president and CEO, and a nonresident health policy fellow at the Baker Institute. “While our data doesn’t explain exactly why that is happening, the Texas economy improved during that time which might have helped the uninsured pay for care.”

In addition, Marks said because the number of insured patients increased across the state, more charitable care may have been available to the uninsured. New 1115 Medicaid waiver projects across Texas also may have enabled more uninsured adults to access affordable health services, Marks said.

The full report is here. Elena Marks and Vivian Ho are familiar names to anyone who’s been following health insurance news in Houston – they’ve been on this stuff since the beginning. Now just imagine how much better things could be if we’d only expand Medicaid, too.

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