Least-Shocking News of the Day: Uninsured hospital admissions cut in half in ACA Medicaid expansion states

Still clearing out my in box, but I'm at least able to devote a full entry to each story this morning. This one is from more than a week ago but still very noteworthy:

One of the nation’s largest hospital operators,Tenet Healthcare THC -0.12% (THC), last week opened a window into the differences for patients and hospital financial coffers between those states with Medicaid dollars and those without.

“In our five states that expanded Medicaid in 2014, we benefited from a significant migration of patients from uninsured into Medicaid with a 54% decline in uninsured admissions and a 27% decline in uninsured outpatient visits,” Tenet chief executive Trevor Fetter said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call last week.

In case you think this is just "cherry-picking" from a single hospital corporation, here's a similar story from back in May (when Medicaid expansion enrollment was significantly lower):

The Hospital Corporation of America, which has facilities in 20 states, reported a big gap in Medicaid and uninsured admissions between expansion and non-expansion states. In the four states it operates where Medicaid expanded under the ACA, the company saw a 22.3 percent growth in Medicaid admissions, compared to a 1.3 percent decline in non-expansion states. The company also had a 29 percent decline in uninsured admissions in the expansion states, while non-expansion states experienced 5.9 percent growth in uninsured admissions, chief financial officer William Rutherford said.

Gee, if you provide more people with healthcare coverage, hospitals are less likely to get stuck with uninsured admissions. Who'da Thunk?