Health Insurance Coverage among Women of Reproductive Age Before & After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act
OBJECTIVES:
The
Affordable Care Act's expansions to Medicaid and private coverage are of
particular importance for women of childbearing age, who have numerous
preventive care and reproductive health care needs.
STUDY DESIGN:
We
conducted two national surveys, one in 2012 and one in 2015, collecting
information about health insurance coverage and access to care from 8000 women
aged 18-39. We examine type of insurance and continuity of coverage between
time periods, including by poverty status and whether or not women live in a
state that expanded Medicaid coverage.
RESULTS:
The
proportion of women who were uninsured declined by almost 40% (from 19% to
12%), though several groups, including U.S. born and foreign-born Latinas, experienced
no significant declines. Among low-income women in states that expanded
Medicaid, the proportion uninsured declined from 38% to 15%, largely due to an
increase in Medicaid coverage (from 40% to 62%). Declines in uninsurance in
non-expansion states were only marginally significant.
CONCLUSIONS:
Despite
substantial improvements in health insurance coverage, significant gaps remain,
particularly in states that have not expanded Medicaid and for Latinas.
IMPLICATIONS:
This
analysis examines changes in insurance coverage that occurred after the
Affordable Care Act was implemented. While coverage has improved for many
populations, sizeable gaps in coverage remain for Latinas and women in states
that did not expand Medicaid.
- 1Guttmacher Institute, 125 Maiden Lane, 7(th) Floor, New York, NY 10038. Electronic address: rjones@guttmacher.org.
- 2Guttmacher Institute, 1301 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036. Electronic address: asonfield@guttmacher.org.
- Contraception. 2016 Jan 20. pii: S0010-7824(15)30093-7. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2016.01.003.
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