Tuesday, May 24, 2016

New Health Policy Brief: Uninsurance Rates And The Affordable Care Act

Recurring Topic Image - Health Policy Brief (640 x 360 at 72 PPI)

A new policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation considers how uninsurance rates are changing under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was implemented to decrease the number of Americans lacking health insurance. Four government surveys (and a few private surveys) have been conducted to measure what is understandably the most important metric in evaluating the ACA’s effect. The brief details the challenges encountered in measuring the ACA’s success in this area.

The surveys discussed are the Current Population Survey (CPS); the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); the American Community Survey (ACS); and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Exhibit 1 shows the 2014 uninsurance rates for all four surveys; the rates range from 13.3 percent to 18.3 percent. In addition, The Commonwealth Fund and the RAND Corporation also provide uninsurance data, as do the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and the Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) — which are explained in the brief.

Exhibit 1

healthpolicybrief_157-2

About Health Policy Briefs

Health Policy Briefs are aimed at policymakers, congressional staffers, and others needing short, jargon-free explanations of health policy basics. The briefs, which are reviewed by experts in the field, include competing arguments on policy proposals and the relevant research supporting each perspective.

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Sign up for an email alert about upcoming briefs. The briefs are also available from the RWJF’s website.

Please feel free to forward the briefs to any of your colleagues who are tracking health issues. And after you’ve taken a look, we welcome your feedback.



from Health Affairs BlogHealth Affairs Blog http://ift.tt/1XRS2r6

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