The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion has led to a 40 percent increase in the number of prescriptions for diabetes medicine filled in the 30 states that expanded their Medicaid programs.

Meanwhile, there was no change in the number of diabetes-related prescriptions filled in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs.

This is considered important because it suggests that many low-income people who either could not afford their diabetes medicine or whose illness was undiagnosed are now being treated for the disease – a significant development because every diabetic who is treated for the condition represents a cost savings of $6394 a year, mostly because of fewer hospitalizations.

Because diabetes is especially prevalent in the low-income communities urban safety-net hospitals serve, these hospitals have played a major role in bringing much-needed treatment to their communities, improving their health of their residents, and helping to reduce health care costs.

Learn more about how Medicaid expansion is improving the health of low-income people with diabetes and lowering health care spending in this California Healthline report or go here to see the Health Affairs study “Medicaid Eligibility Expansions May Address Gaps in Access to Diabetes Medications” on which that report is based.