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ACA’s open enrollment improves access to primary care, medications

Nationwide, significant improvements in access to health care were seen following the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment sessions, according to recently published data in JAMA.

“We found that national trends in coverage and access [to a personal physician and medications] prior to the ACA were worsening. Those trends improved after October 2013, when the ACA’s open enrollment began. The results suggest that the ACA may be associated with reductions in long-standing disparities in access to care, one of the goals of the ACA,” Benjamin D. Sommers, MD, PhD, department of health policy and management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers analyzed data from the 2012 to 2015 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index to assess changes in self-reported coverage, access to care and health following the ACA’s two open enrollment periods. In total, 507,055 participants were included in the study.

Results demonstrated that following the ACA’s first and second open enrollment period, significantly more individuals reported insurance coverage, had access to a personal physician and medications, could afford health care and reported being in good or fair health, compared with before the open enrollments. Overall, the largest changes were seen in minority populations.

Low-income individuals in states that expanded Medicaid reported significant increases in health coverage compared with those in states that did not expand coverage.

“Future research using claims data and other objective measures will be necessary to better understand changes in utilization and health comes related to the ACA,” the researchers concluded. – by Casey Hower

Disclosures: Sommers reports receiving grants from AHRQ, National Institute for Health Care Management, and Commonwealth Fund. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.