Disasters and the public health safety net: Hurricane Floyd hits the North Carolina Medicaid program.

OBJECTIVES

We measured the effect of Hurricane Floyd on Medicaid enrollment and health services use in the most severely affected counties of North Carolina.

METHODS

We used differences-in-differences models on balanced panels of Medicaid claims and enrollment data.

RESULTS

Overall spending per enrollee showed little short-term effect but demonstrated a moderate increase 1 year after the storm. We found very modest short-term increases in Medicaid enrollment, a small long-term decrease in enrollment, and large increases in the long-term use of emergency room and outpatient services.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that hurricane victims experienced substantial changes in patterns of care that endured for much longer than the initial crisis period. These findings can have important implications for the management of disaster relief for this population.