Vision Coverage Leads to Less Difficulty Seeing Among Medicaid Recipients: AHRQ Study

Medicaid recipients with vision coverage were 11 percent less likely to have difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses or contact lenses compared with those who did not have vision coverage, a new AHRQ study found. States are not required to provide Medicaid adult vision benefits, but many have offered some level of preventive coverage in the past decade. AHRQ researchers compared vision outcomes in states that provided these benefits with those that did not between 2002 and 2013. In addition to lowering the odds of difficulty seeing, Medicaid adult vision benefits increased the likelihood of an eye care visit among Medicaid recipients by 17 percent. The authors reported that their study was the first to examine the causal effects of Medicaid vision coverage. Findings were based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey and the Kaiser Family Foundation. “The Effect of Health Insurance Coverage on Medical Care Utilization and Health Outcomes: Evidence from Medicaid Adult Vision Benefits” and abstract were published in theJournal of Health Economics.

2015 Dec;44:320-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.10.006. Epub 2015 Nov 11.

The effect of health insurance coverage on medical care utilization and health outcomes: Evidence fromMedicaid adult vision benefits.

Lipton BJ1, Decker SL2.

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Abstract

Increasing the proportion of adults that have regular, comprehensive eye exams and reducing visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error and other common eye health problems are federal health objectives. We examine the effect of vision insurance on eye care utilization and visionhealth outcomes by taking advantage of quasi-experimental variation in Medicaid coverage of adult vision care. Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference approach, we find that Medicaid beneficiaries with vision coverage are 4.4 percentage points (p<0.01) more likely to have seen an eye doctor in the past year, 5.3 percentage points (p<0.01) less likely to report needing but not purchasing eyeglasses or contacts due to cost, 2.0 percentage points (p<0.05) less likely to report difficulty seeing with usual vision correction, and 1.2 percentage points (p<0.01) less likely to have a functional limitation due to vision.