Implementing the Affordable Care Act's Insurance Coverage Provisions
<p>The Affordable Care Act's major health insurance expansions and market reforms will take effect in just eight months. A report released last month by The Commonwealth Fund underscores the need for these new coverage solutions. Based on the Fund's 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey, the report finds that in 2012 an estimated 84 million adults ages 19 to 64 did not have health insurance for the full year, or were underinsured and unprotected from high out-of-pocket medical costs. </p><p>In a <a href="/blog/2013/implementing-affordable-care-acts-health-coverage-provisions">new blog post,</a> Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D., and vice president for Affordable Health Insurance Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., examine both the reform law's potential to cover millions of people and the groups who will be left out, including people with very low incomes in states that choose not to expand Medicaid and undocumented immigrants. </p>
<p>"Enrollment in the law's new coverage options may begin slowly next year and gain momentum as more people become aware of their eligibility and more states move forward with their Medicaid expansions," the authors say. "But it will take the concerted efforts of federal and state policymakers and stakeholders to effectively use the tools provided by the Affordable Care Act, as well as additional policy levers, to ensure affordable health insurance for all U.S. residents over the next decade." </p>
<p>Read the complete post on <a href="~/link.aspx?_id=0B67ACA7A5CB453CB876F3DB59E19448&_z=z">The Commonwealth Fund Blog</a>. </p>