American Medical News turned to Manatt's Melinda Dutton, a partner in the firm's Healthcare Division, for an article on why many of those who are already eligible for Medicaid have yet to sign up.
American Medical News reports a recent study comparing a national sample of uninsured nonelderly adults to a sample of adults enrolled in Medicaid found that the uninsured population on the whole had fewer functional limitations, were more active and reported fewer chronic problems. The study also found that the uninsured were more likely to be male, non-Hispanic whites who were college graduates.
Dutton told the publication that women are more likely to access the health care system as primary caretakers of children, so it's not surprising to see a higher proportion of men in the Medicaid-eligible uninsured population.
Some of these uninsured are not yet eligible for Medicaid, and others haven't sought coverage previously because of the absence of pressing health care needs. These people are saying to themselves: "I'm a low-income person, I have a lot of other competing demands in my life, and I'm not necessarily thinking about going after that Medicaid coverage," Dutton said.