Report

New results released today by the National Center for Health Statistics show that the dependent-coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act has continued to produce insurance coverage gains among young adults during 2011.

The Affordable Care Act includes several provisions that are expected to significantly improve women's health. The Affordable Care Act improves coverage for important preventive services and maternity care, promotes higher quality care for older women, and ends the gender discrimination that requires women to pay more for the same insurance coverage as men.

The Affordable Care Act prohibits health plans from putting a lifetime dollar limit on most benefits received by Americans in any health plan renewing on or after September 23, 2010. While some plans already provided coverage with no limits on lifetime benefits, millions of Americans were previously in health plans that did not.

This brief reviews the literature on the cost of contraceptive coverage in private and public health insurance programs.  This brief was written by John Bertko, F.S.A., M.A.A.A., Director of Special Initiatives and Pricing in the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Sherry Glied, Ph.D., Assistant

This Issue Brief provides estimates of Medicare Parts A, B, and D savings from the Affordable Care Act to seniors and people living with disabilities enrolled in traditional Medicare.

The Affordable Care Act identified ten categories of services and items included in essential health benefits (EHBs). All ten categories of services and items must be covered by insurance offered in the individual and small group markets as of January 1, 2014.

This report examines the variation in Medigap premiums, recent trends in premium growth and policies that experience relatively high premium growth. The report also compares the premium growth over different segments of the entire time period studied, and to changes in enrollment in both Medigap policies and the Medicare Advantage Program. [38 PDF pages]

Results released December 14, 2011, by the National Center for Health Statistics demonstrate that the extension of dependent coverage up to age 26 has increased the number of young adults with health insurance, by even more than prior analyses had suggested.

Under the Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, Americans cannot be denied coverage, be charged significantly higher premiums, be subjected to an extended waiting period, or have their benefits curtailed by insurance companies because of some type of pre-existing health condition.