Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
More than a decade after its enactment, tens of millions of people nationwide rely on coverage options created through the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The law has survived multiple court challeges at the U.S. Supreme Court and repeated attempts by Republicans in Congress to repeal it. Subsequent legislation has scaled back some aspects of the law and expanded others, including by the COVID-19 relief bill, the American Response Plan Act of 2021. This page highlights relevant analysis about the ACA and proposed and enacted changes to it..
For information about ACA Marketplace Open Enrollment, including fact sheets and 300+ FAQs, visit our collection of resources on Understanding Health Insurance.
A summary of 10 of the major health coverage and financing provisions of the current Build Back Better Act, with discussion of the potential implications for people and the federal budget.
In this Policy Watch we explore the potential impact of the expiration of the American Rescue Plan Act’s enhanced financial help and new eligibility for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance Marketplace federal subsidies. While the COVID-19 relief legislation passed earlier this year provides greater subsidy assistance through 2022, Democrats in Congress are currently considering making the temporary federal help permanent or extending it as part of their planned budget reconciliation legislation.
Where does President-elect Donald Trump stand on key health care issues? This snapshot outlines his positions and policy statements during the campaign on issues such as health insurance, the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare, the opioid epidemic, prescription drug costs, and women’s reproductive health.
The ACA’s third open enrollment will come to a close at the end of January and the December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that only 7 percent of the uninsured correctly identify this as the deadline to enroll in coverage. With Democratic presidential candidates debating the idea of Medicare-for-all, which involves creating a national health plan in which all Americans would get their insurance through an expanded version of the Medicare program, most Democrats like the idea, but very few say the issue will drive their votes in the 2016 elections. As the U.S. Senate voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) earlier this month, more of the public views the health care law unfavorably than favorably (46 percent vs. 40 percent). In addition, the public remains divided over what Congress should do next with the law, with 35 percent supporting repeal, 14 percent supporting scaling back the law, 18 percent who say they would like to see it implemented as is, and 22 percent who say they want the law expanded.
CMS recently released its latest update on Medicaid and CHIP enrollment data, covering the period through April 2014. This fact sheet provides a brief overview of the latest data and what it suggests about the impact of the ACA on Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, providing historical trends for context
Drew Altman, in The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, discusses what a new Foundation survey finds about one of the biggest questions about the Affordable Care Act: whether it covers the uninsured.
In a column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses if the legal court cases about whether the government can provide tax credits to people in the Affordable Care Act’s federal health exchanges will be perceived by the American people as a legitimate legal question or as more inside-Washington politics.
This second wave of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s California uninsured survey assesses the impact of the Affordable Care Act to date on state residents who were uninsured prior to open enrollment. The results capture the share of previously uninsured Californians who gained coverage or remained uninsured, how they feel about and interact with their new coverage options and what barriers to getting insurance remain. The report examines breakouts by race, coverage type, and other demographic factors.
This Policy Insight draws on the experiences of Medicare beneficiaries during Medicare’s annual enrollment period to consider whether consumers with health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s new marketplaces will shop for a better deal during their open enrollment season.
With the approaching launch of the second open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplaces and at a time when open enrollment is also happening for many job-based plans, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,292 U.S. adults to shed light on Americans’ understanding of basic health insurance terms and concepts, and to identify gaps in awareness that could lead to difficulties for some individuals as they choose new plans or use their health plans.
To provide greater insight into how Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation has affected people with HIV during the first year of major insurance expansions, this issue brief examines the experiences of people with HIV based on focus groups conducted in five states: California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Texas. It is a part of KFF’s larger ACA sentinel sites project.
With many of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major provisions taking effect this past year, the December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that many Americans are aware of the main parts of the law and, with the exception of the individual mandate, at least 6 in 10 feel favorably towards them. The poll finds the vast majority of the uninsured don’t know the deadline to enroll, most expect to get health insurance in the next few months, and nearly two-thirds say they don’t think they’ll have to pay a fine, or don’t know if they will, for not having coverage this year.
