State-level Medicaid expansion could be beneficial financially for physicians, registered nurses and managers, but not for lower-earning healthcare workers, according to a Feb. 27 study published in the JAMA Network.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, looked at 1,322,263 healthcare workers from 2010-2019. Medicaid expansion in states was associated with a 2.16% increase in annual incomes for the highest-earning healthcare workers, including managers and physicians.
Healthcare workers in lower-earning quintiles did not experience any significant compensation changes. Medicaid expansion was associated with a 3.15 percentage point increase in the likelihood that a healthcare worker received Medicaid benefits.
The findings suggest that improved hospital finances may result in greater economic inequity among employees, the researchers wrote.