On Monday, March 23, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) turns five. Like many five year olds, the ACA enters its fifth year following some turbulent early years but also astounding growth and progress. While there are numerous aspects of the ACA worth celebrating, here are just a few recent developments that add to the long list of reasons to celebrate the law’s birthday and wish it many more:
The Affordable Care Act has been instrumental in making significant progress towards the expansion of health care coverage. The law has precipitated the largest drop in the national uninsured rate in forty years. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), major provisions within that ACA have helped 16.5 million people gain health insurance coverage, and since the first open enrollment period in October 2013 for marketplace insurance began, the uninsured rate for adults has dropped from 20.3% to 13.2%.
In Wisconsin, 207,349 people have signed up for or have been automatically re-enrolled in health plans through the Federally Facilitated Marketplace during the recently-concluded open enrollment period. Almost 90% of those enrolled are eligible for subsidies that help make coverage affordable.
Growth in health care costs have slowed dramatically, despite dire predictions that costs would soar because of the ACA. Earlier this month the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office announced that ACA costs to the federal government were slated to cost less than previously anticipated. This is around 11% less over the next 10 years than the CBO projection given in January. The CBO attributed the lower than expected spending to slower than expected growth in health insurance premiums, thereby cutting marketplace subsidy costs.
Access to employer sponsored insurance coverage has remained stronger than anticipated. In Wisconsin as well as throughout the nation, access to employer sponsored insurance (ESI) has not decreased as much as detractors of the law predicted. Although the percentage of Americans with ESI has been trending downward for more than ten years, the ACA has not accelerated that trend. One consequence of that in Wisconsin is that BadgerCare enrollment of children has been much less than the state assumed in the last budget bill.
Provisions in the ACA that help states implement programs to help take care of some of their most vulnerable residents – children. Wisconsin has taken advantage of federal funding provided via the ACA through the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program to implement services like the Family Foundations Comprehensive Home Visiting (FFHV) program. This is a joint program between DHS and the Dept. of Children and Families (DCF), which is aimed at “improving outcomes for children born into at-risk communities and reducing the instances of child abuse and neglect in Wisconsin.” The program currently operates 14 evidence-based home visiting programs that operate in 15 counties and 4 tribal communities. Earlier this month WI received news that HHS has awarded the state $11 million so that it can continue and expand FFCHV program.
Sashi Gregory
