What Role Has the ACA Played in the Declining Uninsured Rate?
<p>While the number of Americans without health insurance has decreased substantially since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded coverage in 2014, questions have been raised about the degree to which the economic recovery and other changes might have been responsible for this decline.</p><p>In a new analysis of national survey data for The Commonwealth Fund, a research team led by economist Sherry Glied, dean of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, provides an answer to this lingering question. Their study of insurance coverage rates before and after the ACA’s first open enrollment period—which lasted from fall 2013 to spring 2014—finds that the great majority of adults under age 65 who obtained coverage would likely not have had it in the ACA’s absence. While the law’s new coverage options did replace some individual market coverage, they did not replace employer coverage to any significant extent, the authors say.</p>
<p>About 8 million people, enrolled in ACA marketplace plans during the first open enrollment, while an additional 4.8 million people enrolled in Medicaid.</p>
<p>Glied and colleagues say their findings highlight the importance of maintaining and even expanding subsidized coverage to further reduce the number of uninsured.</p>