In conjunction with a report from White House economic advisers, the Department of Health and Human Services has released a new compilation of data illustrating the Obama administration’s impact on healthcare reform.
The national- and state-level data from a variety of sources illustrate how the Affordable Care Act has benefited those with Medicare, Medicaid, individual market coverage and employer-sponsored plans, according to an HHS announcement.
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Here are some of the highlights:
- Americans with employer-based coverage have received more than $1 billion in refunds from insurers that failed to spend at least 80 cents of premium dollars on healthcare rather than administrative costs
- Due in part to the expansion of Medicaid eligibility, 15.7 million more people now have Medicaid coverage than before the ACA’s major coverage provisions took effect
- More than 9 million moderate- and middle-income Americans received tax credits averaging $300 per month to help them afford coverage, whereas pre-ACA only people with employer-sponsored coverage got such tax benefits
- The ACA’s progress toward closing the prescription “donut hole” saved about 11 million Medicare beneficiaries more than $23 billion total, or an average of more than $2,000 per beneficiary.
- In part because the ACA mandates coverage for annual wellness visits and eliminates cost-sharing for recommended preventive services, 73% of all seniors enrolled in Medicare Part B took advantage of at least one free preventive service in 2015.
As she has argued in a recent blog post for Health Affairs, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell noted in the announcement that gains made under the ACA make a strong case for building on the law, not repealing it, as Republicans are planning to do once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“As our nation debates changes to the healthcare system, it’s important to take stock of the historic progress in recent years,” she said. “Millions of Americans with all types of coverage have a stake in the future of health reform, and it’s time to build on the progress we’ve made, not move our system backward.”