Effect of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion on Emergency Department Visits: Evidence From State-Level Emergency Department Databases

Study objective We assess whether the expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) results in changes in emergency department (ED) visits or ED payer mix. We also test whether the size of the change in ED visits depends on the change in the size of the Medicaid population. Methods Using all-capture, longitudinal, state data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Fast Stats program, we...