Affordable Care Act

This brief explores key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for people with HIV, and the opportunities and challenges for using the law to improve HIV care, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling on the law.

Estimates are that there are approximately 630,000 people who are homeless on any given night in the U.S. — about two-thirds in shelters and one-third on the street or without real shelter. Several million people are estimated to experience homelessness over the course of a year. About two-thirds are individuals and the…

There are multiple sources of insurance coverage and care for people with HIV in the United States.  These include public programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, as well as private coverage through an employer or in the individual market. Medicaid, the nation’s principal safety-net…

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services such as colonoscopies without any patient cost-sharing. This report finds that confusion over whether colon cancer screenings are preventive care or treatment means patients sometimes receive unexpected bills for the procedure. The report examines cost-sharing practices for colorectal screenings through interviews with experts and officials in the medical and insurance industries.

This report was co-authored by The Kaiser Family Foundation, American Cancer Society, and National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable.

On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court upheld the constitutionality of the ACA’s individual mandate, which requires most people to maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage beginning in 2014. A majority of the…

On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A majority of the Court also found the ACA’s Medicaid expansion unconstitutionally coercive of states, while a different majority of the Court held that this issue was fully remedied by limiting the Health…

This historical review finds that the availability of federal funds has served as an effective incentive for states to provide health coverage to meet the health and long-term care needs of their low-income residents despite state budget pressures. The brief examines the history of earlier experiences and provides important context for how states may respond as they weigh the costs and benefits of expanding their Medicaid programs in 2014 as called for under the Affordable Care Act.

This short summary describes the health coverage provisions contained in the final version of the Affordable Care Act signed into law in March 2010, including the individual mandate requirements, expansion of public programs, health insurance exchanges, changes to private insurance and employer requirements.

Following last week’s Supreme Court’s decision upholding the heart of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a majority of Americans (56 percent) now say they would like to see the law’s detractors stop their efforts to block its implementation and move on to other national problems. In the first of two…

This policy brief describes the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act and looks ahead to the implementation of health reform now that questions about the constitutionality of the law have been resolved. Brief (.pdf)