Policy & Regulation

This Issue Brief describes changes in the uninsured rate, health coverage, and access to care for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) and discusses key policies for this population, including how the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and invests additional resources in the Indian health care system.

This report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2018 for most indicators and through 2019 for other indicators, reflecting changes that have taken place since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996.

Medicaid and the Marketplace are important sources of affordable, comprehensive healthcare coverage for millions of Americans living in rural areas, and the American Rescue Plan bolsters rural coverage options. But challenges in accessing care remain in many rural areas, including provider shortages, infrastructure limitations, and long distances to care.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) offers enhanced health insurance premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions for people receiving unemployment compensation (UC) benefits in 2021. The enhanced subsidies are accessible on HealthCare.gov as of July 1, 2021.

This Issue Brief analyzes national survey data to discuss demographic characteristics of the LGB+ community, recent trends in insurance coverage for this population, and various challenges and barriers to care faced by the broader LGBTQ+ community.Related Products

This Issue Brief presents current estimates of enrollment in health insurance coverage obtained through the ACA Marketplaces and the Medicaid expansion and the subsequent reductions in state-level uninsured rates since the ACA was implemented in 2014.Related Products

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This is an evaluation policy for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), required by the Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act). ASPE convened a group of agency representatives from across HHS operating and staff divisions to develop the policy.

As part of the Evidence Act, HHS is required to submit “an evaluation plan describing activities the agency plans to conduct pursuant to [its evidence-building plan].” Nine operating divisions within HHS and one staff division developed evaluation plans and included information on priority questions being examined by the agencies as well as data, methods, and challenges to addressing those ques

Limited initial supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine necessitated the development of strategies to ensure efficient and equitable vaccine distribution. This brief summarizes the different vaccine distribution strategies and approaches taken by states and evaluates the extent to which these may have impacted the efficiency with which doses delivered to states are administered to patients.