Further, research shows that the ACA Medicaid expansion to low-income adults has helped to
narrow racial disparities in health coverage
, contributed to improvements in access to and use of care across groups, and narrowed disparities in health outcomes for Black and Hispanic individuals, particularly for measures of …
How does the ACA help to reduce health disparities and advance health equity?
Under the ACA,
most plans must cover preventive services — such as tobacco cessation — without cost sharing
. This has already reduced some racial and ethnic disparities in access to preventive care. But insurers can do more to increase utilization by eliminating remaining financial barriers to care.
How the Affordable Care Act has narrowed racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care?
The ACA coverage expansions have led to historic reductions in racial and ethnic health access disparities between 2013 and 2018, but progress has largely stopped since 2016.
The black uninsured rate dropped almost 10 points during the period, and the coverage gap with whites narrowed by 4.1 points
.
Has the Affordable Care Act improved health outcomes?
Arriving at its 10th anniversary,
there is significant evidence that the ACA has reduced social disparities in key health care outcomes
, including insurance coverage, health care access, and the use of primary care.
What are the effects of the Affordable Care Act?
The ACA enabled people to gain coverage by 1)
expanding the publicly funded Medicaid program to cover adults with annual incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level
; 2) establishing the Health Insurance Marketplace for individuals and small businesses, allowing them to purchase private health insurance (PHI); and 3 …
How did the ACA reform influence the health care access of low-income families?
In its first two years of full implementation, the ACA
improved health care access for Americans in low-income households
, people who were not college graduates, and the unemployed. The law's Medicaid expansion was responsible for about half of these gains.
What are disparities in healthcare?
Health disparities are
preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations
.
How do disparities affect patient care?
Research further finds that health disparities are costly. Analysis estimates that
disparities amount to approximately $93 billion in excess medical care costs and $42 billion in lost productivity per year as well as additional economic losses due to premature deaths
.
What is one example of how the ACA will increase access to healthcare?
ACA Early Returns
Medicaid expansion, in particular, has been associated with a significant increase (6.6 percentage points) in
physician visits among low-income adults
, as well as increases in preventive care such as dental visits and cancer screenings, specifically among childless adults (80, 97).
Why do minorities have less access to healthcare?
Blacks and sometimes other minorities are
less likely to receive a diverse range of procedures
, ranging from high-technology interventions to basic diagnostic and treatment procedures, and they experience poorer quality medical care than whites.
How has the ACA affected people of different socioeconomic backgrounds?
The absolute gap in insurance coverage between people in households with annual incomes below $25,000 and those in households with incomes above $75,000 fell from 31 percent to 17 percent (a relative reduction of 46 percent) in expansion states and from 36 percent to 28 percent in nonexpansion states (a 23 percent …
Which of the following are reasons why healthcare in the US is so expensive?
The price of medical care
is the single biggest factor behind U.S. healthcare costs, accounting for 90% of spending. These expenditures reflect the cost of caring for those with chronic or long-term medical conditions, an aging population and the increased cost of new medicines, procedures and technologies.
What are the 10 essential benefits of the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act requires non-grandfathered health plans in the individual and small group markets to cover essential health benefits (EHB), which include items and services in the following ten benefit categories: (1) ambulatory patient services; (2) emergency services; (3) hospitalization; (4) maternity and …
How will the Affordable Care Act affect healthcare organizations?
The ACA
reduced the annual increases in payments to hospitals under the traditional Medicare program
. It also reduced payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Partly because of these measures, increases in Medicare expenditures have been 20 percent lower than projected since the law was enacted.
Why affordable health care is important?
By making health coverage more affordable and accessible and thus increasing the number of Americans with coverage, by funding community-based public health and prevention programs, and by supporting research and tracking on key health measures, the ACA is beginning to
reduce disparities in health insurance coverage,
…
What contributes to health disparities?
Many factors contribute to health disparities, including genetics, access to care, poor quality of care, community features (e.g., inadequate access to healthy foods, poverty, limited personal support systems and violence), environmental conditions (e.g., poor air quality), language barriers and health behaviors.
Why is health disparities important?
Improving the health of individuals in the most disadvantaged communities leads to lower taxes and healthcare costs
. Disparities in health lead to unnecessary health care costs that increase financial burdens on taxpayers through the form of Medicaid and emergency room use.
Why should we care about health disparities?
On top of being costly,
disparities hinder the nation's overall health, as groups who historically have had access to fewer resources have higher rates of illness and death from a variety of preventable conditions
. Working to close gaps in health and health care will take community and legislative efforts.
How can health care disparities be improved?
- Raising public and provider awareness of racial/ethnic disparities in care;
- Expanding health insurance coverage;
- Improving the capacity and number of providers in underserved communities; and.
- Increasing the knowledge base on causes and interventions to reduce disparities.
How can racial disparities be improved in healthcare?
Increase awareness of racial and ethnic disparities in health care among the general public.
Strengthen patient-provider relationships in publicly funded health plans
. Apply the same managed care protections to publicly funded HMO participants that apply to private HMO participants.
What are examples of health care disparities?
- Mortality.
- Life expectancy.
- Burden of disease.
- Mental health.
- Uninsured/underinsured.
- Lack of access to care.
