Does cost-sharing in Medicaid influence unmet health care need?

Unmet healthcare need is a poorly understood but important issue in health policy, with potentially significant consequences for population health. Prior research suggests that unmet healthcare needs are influenced by insurance status, type of coverage, individual health characteristics, and sociodemographic factors. Cost sharing, commonly used by insurers as a cost-containment strategy, may contribute to unmet healthcare need by creating financial barriers to care. In 2003, cost sharing was introduced into the Oregon Health Plan as part of a policy effort to control expenditures. This study examines the impact of these cost-sharing policy changes on perceived unmet healthcare need among adult enrollees of the Oregon Health Plan. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the 2003 Oregon Health Care Study, a prospective cohort study of adult Medicaid beneficiaries.