A new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researcher Benjamin Sommers finds improved trends in insurance coverage, access to primary care and medications, health care affordability, and self-reported health under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The study drew from telephone surveys taken between 2012 and 2015. All of these measures had shown worsening trends during the months prior to the ACA’s first open enrollment period in October 2013.
The study appeared online July 28, 2015 in JAMA.
Among the findings:
- No insurance — down by 7.9 percentage points
- No primary care physician — down by 3.5 percentage points
- No easy access to medicine — down 2.4 percentage points
- Can’t afford care — down 5.5 percentage points
- In fair or poor health — down 3.4 percentage points
The study found the largest improvements in health coverage and access to care among low-income adults in states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the ACA, as well as among racial and ethnic minorities.
Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics, and colleagues wrote that the results “suggest that the ACA may be associated with reductions in long-term disparities in access to care, one of the goals of the ACA.”
Obamacare’s side effects: Fewer uninsured, better health (CNBC)