Heart Attack Patients With Medicaid, Medicare or No Insurance More Likely to Die Than Those With Private Coverage, Study Finds

Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries and uninsured individuals are more likely to die of a heart attack than people with private health coverage, Scripps Howard News/Nando Times reports. A new study conducted by researchers at Illinois' Governors State University and released in the August issue of Health Services Research tracked hospital records for more than 95,000 patients in 11 states who were diagnosed either with a heart attack or "presumed heart attack complication." Lead study author Jay Shen said that Medicaid beneficiaries and people without insurance were 20% and 30% more likely, respectively, to die in the hospital than Medicare beneficiaries, while patients with private insurance were 20% less likely to die than Medicare beneficiaries. Shen said that race and income did not significantly alter the risk of death after a heart attack. The study found, however, that participants "in the most unfavorable circumstances" -- those who lived in a low-income area, lacked insurance or were enrolled in Medicaid -- were "not only ... more likely to die, but also were sicker, stayed in the hospital longer, were less likely to receive certain procedures for heart disease and had higher hospital bills compared to privately insured patients who lived in more affluent neighborhoods." Shen said that "given the higher costs posed" by such individuals, "an increased focus on improving treatment of heart attack patients bearing multiple low socioeconomic attributes may be in the public interest" (Bowman, Scripps Howard News/Nando Times, 7/31).