New Study Finds Disparities in Coverage, Access to Care Among Four Largest States
<p>A new Commonwealth Fund study suggests that some of the differences in insurance coverage rates and affordability of care among the nation’s four largest states may be attributable to health insurance policies in these states before and after the Affordable Care Act took effect.</p><p>
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<p>According to the analysis, which is based on findings from the Fund’s 2014 Biennial Health Insurance Survey of working-age adults, four of 10 adults in Florida and Texas reported they had trouble paying their medical bills or were paying off medical debt over time in 2014, compared with one of four in California and three of 10 in New York. Higher proportions of people in Florida and Texas also had trouble getting needed health care because of the cost.</p>
<p>California and New York both expanded eligibility for Medicaid years before the ACA was implemented, making coverage available to more people than in many other states, and then expanded it fully under the health reform law. Texas and Florida did not. These policy decisions have contributed to lower uninsured rates for residents with low incomes in California and New York compared to Florida and Texas.</p>