The Affordable Care Act & Medicaid Expansion

A new report from the AARP Public Policy Institute/Urban Institute highlights the positive impact of Medicaid expansion for the 50-64 age group. Monitoring the Impact of Health Reform on Americans Ages 50–64 notes that “[t]he Uninsured Rate for 50- to 64-Year-Olds Dropped 31 Percent since December 2013.”

The abstract for the report offers that

New data from the December 2014 Health Reform Monitoring Survey show that the share of Americans ages 50 to 64 without health insurance fell by nearly a third, from 11.6 percent to 8.0 percent, between December 2013 and December 2014. States that chose to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs saw a larger drop in uninsured rates among 50- to 64-year-olds than states that did not. Overall, the number of 50- to 64-year olds with health coverage increased by approximately 2.2 million between December 2013 and December 2014.

The report determines that “Medicaid expansion was a clear driver of the reduction of the uninsured rate among 50- to 64-year olds.”

The full report is available here.