​​​​​​​HHS report: ACA reforms significantly cut uninsured rates for those with pre-existing conditions

Protections put in place by the Affordable Care Act significantly increased access to insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions, according to a new government analysis.

The report (PDF), which was released by the Department of Health and Human Services, found that the uninsured rate for those with pre-existing conditions dropped by 22% between 2010 and 2014, when the ACA’s major reforms took effect. Data beyond 2014 specifically on people with pre-existing conditions is not available, according to the report. Overall, HHS has estimated that 20 million U.S. adults gained health insurance from 2010 to early 2016. 

The recent HHS analysis estimates that approximately 51% of non-elderly Americans have some kind of pre-existing condition for which they could be denied insurance coverage, including common disorders like high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, cancer or heart disease. HHS notes that the ACA’s protections are especially important to people who are middle age and older.

“Today, thanks to Affordable Care Act protections, the uninsured rate is at its lowest level in history and millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions like asthma or cancer no longer have to worry about being denied coverage because of their medical history,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in an announcement of the findings. “This is clear and measurable progress, and we shouldn’t turn the clock back to a time when people were denied coverage.”

Though the Republican-controlled Congress has taken the first steps to dismantle large swaths of the ACA through budget reconciliation, President-elect Donald Trump said that he would support keeping parts of the law, including its ban on denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Yet a full repeal of the ACA could leave millions of people with pre-existing conditions uninsurable if insurers that sell policies in the individual markets return to pre-ACA medical underwriting practices, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.