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.
Featured Affordable Care Act Resources
Potential Costs and Impact of Health Provisions in the Build Back Better Act
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.
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Related Affordable Care Act Resources
- 5 Charts About Public Opinion on the Affordable Care Act
- A Closer Look at the Uninsured Marketplace Eligible Population Following the American Rescue Plan Act
- Eligibility for ACA Health Coverage Following Job Loss
- Pre-Existing Condition Prevalence for Individuals and Families
- Building on the Evidence Base: Studies on the Effects of Medicaid Expansion, February 2020 to March 2021
- FAQs: Health Insurance Marketplace and the ACA
- Explaining Health Care Reform: Questions About Health Insurance Subsidies
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map
- Preventive Services Tracker
- Tracking Section 1332 State Innovation Waivers
How Marketplace Costs and Premiums will Change if Rescue Plan Subsidies Expire
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.
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Obamacare y Usted: Si tiene una condición preexistente
Si usted o alguien de su familia tiene una condición de salud preexistente – como una enfermedad cardíaca, asma o inclusive un embarazo – usted encontrará que es mucho más fácil obtener cobertura o cambiar de plan, comenzando en el 2014. Obamacare prohíbe a las aseguradoras negar cobertura a personas…
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The Numbers Behind “Young Invincibles” and the Affordable Care Act
As enrollment statistics in the new health insurance marketplaces start to become available, there is a growing focus on whether the enrollment of so-called “young invincibles” will be sufficient to keep insurance markets stable. Enrollment of young adults is important, but not as important as conventional wisdom suggests since premiums…
Perspective Read More The Many Roads to Medicaid: An Overview of How People are Connecting to the Program Today
This brief provides an overview of the many different paths to enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP, including paths created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and reviews the available national level data on enrollment through these avenues.
Issue Brief Read More A Guide to the Supreme Court’s Review of the Contraceptive Coverage Requirement
This issue brief dissects the issues raised by the legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that private insurance plans include contraception as part of their coverage of preventive services for women. Over 40 for-profit corporations and over 40 nonprofit corporations have filed lawsuits claiming that the requirement to provide their employees with contraceptives violates their religious rights. On November 26, 2013, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases filed by for-profit corporations, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, that claim that this requirement violates their religious rights. At the crux of these cases is a question that the Supreme Court has not previously addressed: Do for-profit corporations have religious protections under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment? The brief provides background on how the ACA’s contraceptive requirement works, summarizes some of the legal challenges brought by for-profit and non-profit organizations and discusses the implications of potential rulings by the Supreme Court.
Issue Brief Read More The Role of Medicaid in State Economies and the ACA
This brief summarizes findings from 32 studies in 26 states analyzing the anticipated impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion (and in some cases full ACA implementation) on state and local economies.
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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: November 2013
Amid heavy news coverage of problems with the Affordable Care Act’s rollout, the November Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds a significant negative shift in the public’s views of the law, with roughly half now holding an unfavorable view and just a third holding a positive one.
Poll Finding Read More Data Note: Attempting to Measure Early Impact of the ACA through National Public Opinion Polls- A Note of Caution and What to Watch For
After the October start of open enrollment, under the Affordable Care Act, many journalists, policymakers, and the public at large are eager for early data indicating how the law is working from the perspective of potential enrollees. In particular, given the problems with Healthcare.Gov and some of the state exchange websites, many people want quantitative data about people’s experiences attempting to purchase or enroll in some sort of health insurance coverage using these mechanisms.
This Data Note raises a note of caution about the possible pitfalls of using standard national public opinion polls to make judgments about Americans’ early experiences with health plan enrollment under the ACA.
Getting into Gear for 2014: Shifting New Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Policies into Drive
On January 1, 2014, many key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will start to go into effect, including the expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults and the launch of new Medicaid eligibility and enrollment processes, which are designed to move toward a coordinated enrollment system across health coverage programs, including Medicaid, CHIP, and the new Health Insurance Marketplaces. Over the past year, states have made steady and significant progress preparing for these changes, but readiness varies considerably as 2014 nears, and implementation work and ongoing process improvements will continue into the foreseeable future. To provide greater insight into the status of implementation, this report provides an overview of key state Medicaid eligibility and enrollment policies slated to go into effect based on data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Report Read More Fast Track to Coverage: Facilitating Enrollment of Eligible People into the Medicaid Expansion
To help states launch the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion and efficiently enroll eligible individuals, CMS has offered states a series of facilitated enrollment options. These options include strategies, referred to as “fast track enrollment” in this issue brief, that allow states to enroll eligible individuals into coverage using data already available from their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs (SNAP) and/or their Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs for children. This issue brief provides an overview of the new “fast track” enrollment options, including how they have been implemented, their impacts, and key lessons learned. It is based on a series of interviews with state officials in Arkansas, Illinois, Oregon and West Virginia conducted by Manatt Health Solutions and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured in October 2013.
Issue Brief Read More How Do Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Payments Change Under the ACA?
This brief provides some background on federal Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) allotments, how DSH payments are affected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the methodology for the DSH reductions across states for FY 2014 and FY 2015 and a look at the implications of the reductions.
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