One Study on the Impacts of Health Care Reform...

I read an interesting article recently for my Research Methods class that I wanted to comment on. The title of the article was "Projecting the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on California," by Peter Long and Jonathan Gruber. It was published in Health Affairs in January 2011. I am assuming that everyone is familiar with this mandate. If not, the mandate requires all U.S. citizens and legal residents to have federal approved health insurance beginning in 2014 or face a tax penalty of $695 per year or 2.5% of their annual income, which ever is higher. The authors used a micro simulation model to collect and present their data. Their study was broken down in five models: overall distribution of coverage, effects on uninsured, effects on employer-sponsored coverage, effects on health insurance spending and effects on household budgets.

The first model the projected impact of the Affordable Care Act on insurance coverage in California in 2016. It basically shows that the number of uninsured people would fall 52 percent, from 6.5 million to 3.1 million. The second model projects that about 3.8 million formerly uninsured people in California would gain coverage as a result of the law. The third model then projects insurance status changes due to employers’ dropping insurance coverage or requiring higher employee contributions. This model projects that of the 3.1 million people without insurance in 2016, 332,000 (11 percent) would have been insured previously. The fourth model assumes that reduced employer spending on insurance would lead to higher employee wages, but those wages would be taxed. The results project that the typical household in California would gain $280 in 2016 as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The fifth model shows the projected distribution of health reform’s impacts on households in California based on peoples income in accordance to the federal poverty level. 

Just thought this article was interesting because if it is found to be constitutional the mandate will effect everyone under the age of 65 in some way. 


I found this article on ProQuest if you are interested in reading more about this study. Not sure the link below will direct you to the article or not.

http://search.proquest.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/docview/847269449/131E9BBB0901067622A/11?accountid=11824