Heart failure patients who are Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries — or who are uninsured — are less likely to receive essential treatments and tend to be hospitalized for longer periods of time according to investigators from the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. Medicaid recipients with heart failure are 22% more likely to die in the hospital than patients with private insurance.

Data collected data from 99,508 heart failure patients found that individuals receiving Medicaid were less likely to receive drugs such as beta-blockers, enzyme inhibitors or receptor blockers. The study suggests that access to specialists and the patient's socioeconomic may be a factor in the care these individuals receive.

This is not necessarily new information. What will be interesting is what happens when everyone in theory is insured. Will providers still favor the most favorable payers? Stay tuned.