In JAMA: President Obama on How the ACA Has Played Out So Far – news@JAMA

JAMA news

  July 11, 2016

 
President Barack Obama has published a review in JAMA of what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has and has not accomplished since its passage in 2010. Here are the highlights:

• The ACA has been successful in sharply increasing insurance coverage. Since the ACA became law, the uninsured rate has declined from 16% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015, a relative decrease of 43%.
• States that decided to expand their Medicaid programs saw larger reductions in their uninsured rates from 2013 to 2015, especially in states that started with large uninsured populations.
• Early evidence suggests that expanded coverage has led to modest improvements in some measures of access to treatment, financial security, and health.
• Payer spending per health care enrollee has continued to decline in a continuation of pre-2010 trends, and health care quality has improved......