The Affordable Care Act's Effects on Patients, Providers and the Economy: What We've Learned So Far / Jonathan Gruber, Benjamin D. Sommers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gruber, Jonathan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sommers, Benjamin D.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25932.

NBER working paper series no. w25932

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Affordable Care Act’s Effects on Patients, Providers and the Economy

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

As we approach the tenth anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, it is important to reflect on what has been learned about the impacts of this major reform. In this paper we review the literature on the impacts of the ACA on patients, providers and the economy. We find strong evidence that the ACA's provisions have increased insurance coverage. There is also a clearly positive effect on access to and consumption of health care, with suggestive but more limited evidence on improved health outcomes. There is no evidence of significant reductions in provider access, changes in labor supply, or increased budgetary pressures on state governments, and the law's total federal cost through 2018 has been less than predicted. We conclude by describing key policy implications and future areas for research.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2019.