The Affordable Care Act has dramatically expanded access to high-quality, affordable health insurance coverage. Since the law’s major coverage provisions took effect at the start of 2014, the Nation has seen the sharpest reduction in the uninsured rate since the decade following the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, and, as depicted in Figure 1, the Nation’s uninsured rate now stands at its lowest level ever. Combining these recent gains with earlier gains after the law’s provision allowing young adults to remain on a parent’s plan until age 26 took effect, more than 16 million Americans had gained health insurance coverage as of early 2015.
Direct Benefits of Expanded Insurance Coverage for the Newly Insured
Improved Access to Care
- 1.0 million more people would have a usual source of clinic care.
- 491,000 more people would receive all needed care in a year.
- Hundreds of thousands more people would receive recommended preventive care each year
- Millions of people would be better able to obtain other needed medical care.
Better Health and Longer Lives
- 572,000 additional people would report being in excellent, very good, or good health
- 393,000 fewer people would experience symptoms of depression.
- 5,200 fewer people would die each year.
Greater Financial Security
- 193,000 fewer people will face catastrophic out-of-pocket medical costs in a typical year
- 611,000 fewer people will have trouble paying other bills due to the burden of medical costs.
Benefits of Expanding Medicaid for State Economies
- Higher Standard of Living
- Greater Macroeconomic Resilience
- Healthier, More Productive Workers
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