Improved Health Care Access, Lower Costs for Low-Income Adults in Arkansas and Kentucky
<p>Low-income adults in Arkansas and Kentucky, two states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), experienced significantly larger improvements in their access to affordable health care and in their health than their counterparts in Texas, which chose not to expand Medicaid. The findings are from a new <em>Health Affairs</em> study by Benjamin D. Sommers, M.D., and colleagues at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, who used survey data to examine the ACA’s effects in the three years following implementation of the law.</p><p>Arkansas and Kentucky residents who obtained coverage under the ACA’s expansion saw greater improvements in access to primary care and preventive health services, had larger reductions in out-of-pocket costs, and reported bigger improvements in their health compared to low-income Texans.</p>
<p>By the end of 2016, uninsured rates were 7.4 percent in Kentucky, 11.7 percent in Arkansas, and 28.2 percent in Texas.</p>