Health Insurance

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010. Since then, the law has led to an historic expansion of health insurance coverage across all states and all demographic groups within the U.S. This Briefing Book features key findings from two dozen reports published in 2021-2022.

This issue brief analyzes changes in health insurance coverage and examines trends in access to care among Black Americans using data from 2011-2020. This Issue Brief is part of a series of ASPE reports examining the change in coverage rates and access to care after implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) among different racial and ethnic populations.

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) provides annual and quarterly data on health insurance coverage by insurance type, age, and income.

The Affordable Care Act provides premium subsidies for Marketplace eligible individuals to improve health insurance affordability, as well as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) for many enrollees that limit out-of-pocket spending such as deductibles.

This Issue Brief summarizes the ACA's preventive services provisions for private health coverage, Medicare, and Medicaid; provides updated estimates of the number of people benefiting from these provisions nationally; and examines evidence on trends in utilization of preventive services and outcomes since the ACA's preventive services coverage requirements went into effect.

This report provides an overview of the characteristics of the immigrant population in the United States, their health status and barriers to care, recent trends in health insurance coverage, their access to Federal health programs, and how they have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also offers possible policy approaches to improve health care equity for this diverse population.

The postpartum period is increasingly recognized as a target for policy intervention to improve maternal health. The American Rescue Plan Act included an option for states to offer 12 months of postpartum Medicaid eligibility, a significant extension from the current requirement of 60 days.

On January 1, 2022, the surprise billing provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 - commonly referred to as the No Surprises Act - go into effect. Surprise billing occurs when a privately insured individual receives an unexpected bill either in an emergency situation or when a service in an in-network facility is provided by an out-of-network provider.

This Data Point presents current estimates of uninsured rates among early care and education workers (ECE), which includes individuals employed by Head Start, childcare center providers, and preschools. These populations have lower incomes on average and often lack access to benefits, including health coverage, commonly received by teachers in the K-12 system and post-secondary schools.

Federal surveys relied on by researchers and policymakers for estimates of the uninsured population have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially influencing the accuracy of their estimates. This report analyzes evidence from a variety of data sources, including surveys and administrative data, which collectively indicate that the number of uninsured people in the U.S.