In the wake of the recent Minnesota legislative action to provide an alternative means of reaching the impoverished with healthcare subsidies, a study provides confirmation that the state has a long way to go if that taxpayer-subsidized healthcare is on parity with those who receive it via private insurance.

Validating concerns from the fiscal conservative right, the study’s results imply that simply guaranteeing access to this patient population does not represent a panacea for financing the broken healthcare delivery system. At least on the state level, it’s another blow to Obama Democrats who support reform on its most basic level — getting the uninsured basic preventive and acute care.

The parameters studied in this year’s report included cancer screening and disparities among chronic diabetes and hypertension management. Among the latter, the gap in adequate treatment and secondary prevention actually widened. In a state which values greatly preventive healthcare interventions, the message to proponents of healthcare reform is that guaranteed access may cost more in the long run if these healthcare disparities aren’t overcome — lending greater ammo to Tea Partiers and fiscal conservatives in their battle against health reform. | LINK

Related Posts Within Doctor Pundit:

1. Obama Plans Increased Role in Government Subsidized Healthcare Financing for the Uninsured The really cool thing about the not-so-common inaugurations of newly-elected...
2. Study: Simple Access to Primary Care Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Better Health A new study provides some insight into just where the...
3. Study: Screening Mammograms Underutilized in Insured Women With research findings such as this, is it any wonder...
4. Mass. Study Shows No Benefit to State’s Insured with Respect to Costs of Coverage and Affordability One of the fundamentals of healthcare reform is applying the...
5. Minnesota: Healthcare Economist Predicts Positive Access to Care Under Reform Political coalitions here in Minnesota have largely towed the Democratic...