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In the years after health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act unfurled in Multnomah County, Oregon, cardiac arrests among those newly covered fell 17 percent, researchers report this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The pilot study, led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Heart Institute of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is just an observational study—it can't determine causation—and it only looked at the one county. But, the authors argue, the data begs for follow-up.
[...] The correlation doesn't mean that the insurance coverage caused the change, the authors stress. And even if it did, it's not clear from the data how insurance affected cardiac arrest rates. It's possible that with improved diagnoses and preventative care, heart health could improve in this age range. Interventions like smoking cessation programs and medications for cholesterol and atherosclerosis could all improve health, the authors speculate. But more and larger studies are needed to determine if this is true.
Ars Technica coverage: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/after-aca-arrived-in-an-oregon-county-there-was-a-17-drop-in-cardiac-arrest/
The study in question: http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/6/7/e005667
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday June 30 2017, @01:37PM (2 children)
I wonder if the numbers could be partly a temporary spike. If improvements in health care defer heart attacks from the 50s and 60s into the 80s, and half those people succumb to something else in their 70s, then the number of heart attacks should go back up in 10 to 20 years once life expectancy restabilizes around a new, higher age.
Still, nice demonstration of the benefits of affordable health care.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Friday June 30 2017, @03:13PM (1 child)
FTFY. Isn't that the point of healthcare? To improve life expectancy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @05:38PM
I'd say that's half of it, with the other half being improvements to quality of life. Not much point in living until 90, if you'll spend the last 30 years demented and paralyzed in bed.