Report: Americans feel healthier under Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans feel healthier under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study, which surveyed more than 500,000 American adults on behalf of the Health and Human Services Department, measured self-reported rates of being uninsured, lacking a physician and easy access to medicine, the inability to afford care, overall health status and health-related activity limitations, JAMA’s website says.

HSS reviewed the results of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey from 2012 to 2015.

“The ACA’s first two open enrollment periods were associated with significantly improved trends in self-reported coverage, access to primary care and medications, affordability and health,” according to JAMA’s website. “Low-income adults in states that expanded Medicaid reported significant gains in insurance coverage and access compared with adults in states that did not expand Medicaid.”

The study indicates that the number of people who reported fair or poor health decreased between the ACA’s first two open-enrollment periods, the second of which ended in February.

Post-ACA, the adjusted proportions of people who were uninsured decreased 7.9%, while rates of those who could not get access to medicine dropped 3.5%, the study found. People who lacked easy access to medicine decreased 2.4%, and those who could not find affordable care decreased 5.5%. Of the people surveyed, those who reported fair to poor health dropped 3.4%.

“The evidence is clear," HSS’s website says. "When it comes to access, affordability and quality, the Affordable Care Act is working.”