Affordable Care Act

Medicaid will play a major role in extending coverage to millions of uninsured people in 2014 through provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  More than 16 million newly qualified individuals are expected to enroll as a result of the law. What is Medicaid and what is its role in the health care […]

Unemployment has hit everyone hard since the economic downturn began in 2007. And while workers age 50-64 tend to have lower rates of uninsurance than other age groups, they are especially hard hit by losing their jobs and with them their employer-sponsored health benefits. About 8.6 million adults ages 50 to 64 were uninsured in […]

One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is improving the quality of health care while also slowing the growth of spending. This will not be easy as 30+ million individuals gain insurance and the need for chronic care coordination increases with an aging population. In order to meet this challenge, the law aims […]

Health reform is law. But how the law is implemented, and how quickly, depend in part on the results of the midterm election. Now that the leadership of the House will soon change hands, what might Republicans do with respect to health reform? How might Democrats respond? What’s likely to happen with reform in the […]

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted in March 2010 calls for the establishment of state health insurance exchanges – marketplaces through which individuals and small businesses can purchase affordable insurance. These exchanges must begin operation by January 1, 2014. Between now and then, both federal and state officials have many decisions to make and many […]

All states, even those with large centers of urban population, have rural communities and rural residents among their citizens. Residents of rural communities face unique health care challenges, including fewer health care providers, higher rates of chronic disease, and lower adoption rates of health IT. Many provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act […]

Most of the emphasis during the health reform debate centered on affordable health coverage for the uninsured, strategies to control the growth in health care spending, and delivery system reforms. Relatively little attention was given to the many provisions of the new law that deal directly with long-term care. For instance, the Affordable Care Act […]

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA) made a series of changes that will significantly affect the way employers provide health coverage to their employees, and transform many of the choices and protections consumers have in the marketplace. This briefing, cosponsored by the […]

As the second in a series to explore implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, this briefing provided an overview of how the states and the federal government are working together to implement various provisions of the new law. For example, while the law allows for flexibility in the way states set up […]

Now that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is law, what’s happening behind the scenes (as well as in public) to implement it? This briefing, cosponsored by the Alliance and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, provided an overview of federal policymaking and the efforts by stakeholders and others to affect final policies pertaining to […]

For reporters covering health reform, the subject can now seem more complicated than ever. Implementation timelines go on for page after page. Many questions appear to have no answers, at least not yet. Seems like a good time to take a breath and plot out how to cover health reform for the rest of this year, and […]

Young adults have some of the highest uninsurance rates in America. In 2008, three in 10 uninsured Americans– almost 14 million people – were between 19 and 29 years of age. As the health reform legislation was developed, it became evident that covering the uninsured in this age group would be a major component of […]