On Closer Look, the ACA Has Also Helped Young Men Gain Coverage
<p>The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was expected to be a boon for women as well as older, sicker people, due to the law’s ban on insurers charging more based on gender or health status and its limits on age-based pricing. Young men, however, were one group that many analysts believed might not gain coverage under the law — largely because the ACA’s penalties for not having coverage wouldn’t be large enough to convince them to buy insurance.</p><p>But new research from the Commonwealth Fund shows that, following the ACA’s enactment, coverage rates rose for <em>all</em> groups, including higher-income young men who aren’t eligible for the law’s premium subsidies. New York University’s Sherry Glied and Ougni Chakraborty find that the ACA’s individual mandate, along with marketing efforts and an increase in the perceived value of health insurance, outweighed the effects of the new rating and benefit rules.</p>
<p>“The ACA’s mandate increased both the incentive for having insurance and the importance of the decision,” the authors write. It was this combination in particular, they say, that significantly raised coverage rates for young men.</p>