The Washington Post recently reported on a study issued by the Government Accountability Office that showed that people on Medicaid are about as happy with their level of care as those who had private insurance plans.
The GAO, a non-partisan investigative agency of the federal government, showed that when compared to those covered under private insurance plans, Medicaid recipients had about the same number of complaints about not receiving necessary health care each year. For medical care, about 3% of privately insured people complained of not being able to receive care in a year, compared to 3.7% of those on Medicaid. A smaller gap exists for complaints about receiving prescription medication, though dental care showed a greater range, with 3.7% of privately insured people complaining about not being happy with receiving care and 5.4% of those on Medicaid making the same complaint. The study also shows a significant difference between those on either Medicaid or private insurance plans when compared to those who are uninsured. About 10.4% of those without insurance complained of not being able to receive adequate medical care, while 12.3% complained of not being able to receive dental care. However, the study did not reveal information about the quality of health care received. Because Medicaid is provided and paid for through state governments with federal funding, each state determines how much healthcare providers receive when they treat Medicaid patients. This figure is often significantly lower than the payment provided by private healthcare plans.
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