Participants of the Medicaid program are more than twice as likely to spend the night in the hospital as those with private insurance or uninsured. Compared with those with private insurance and those without insurance, they are also significantly less likely to report very good or excellent health. Compared with privately insured and uninsured people, more Medicaid participants report chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease. Compared with those with or without private insurance, more Medicaid participants also self-reported suffering from chronic mental health conditions. 26% of Medicaid respondents said they had depression, and 23.6% said they had anxiety in 2019, almost twice as much as reported by private and uninsured persons .

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MACPAC found that Medicaid beneficiaries are also more likely to receive care for these mental health conditions than those with and without insurance.

In 2019, nearly 16% of people who participated in public insurance plans visited a consultant, compared with 9.7% of those who participated in private insurance plans.

Getting dental care is the biggest difference between private insurance and Medicaid.

In 2019, nearly three-quarters of privately insured individuals underwent dental examinations, compared with 55% of Medicaid beneficiaries. MACPAC points out that not all state Medicaid programs cover adult dental services??. The team also found that participants in the Medicaid program are much more likely to postpone or abandon dental care due to cost issues. 29% of people postponed necessary dental procedures, and 26.2% of Medicaid plan members skipped these procedures in 2019 due to cost issues. In contrast, 16.2% of private insurers postponed and 12.4% gave up Care.