Happy Anniversary!: Affordable Care Act at the five-year mark

March 23 marked five years since Pres. Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.  Ten million more people now have insurance coverage.  As the ACA has only been in effect for a little more than a year, though, to ascertain its other likely effects, it is more useful to consider the first five years of the universal health coverage law in Massachusetts, the model for the ACA.

In Massachusetts, universal coverage became law in April 2006 as Chapter 58.  The most widely cited study of its effects over the first five years describes an improvement in the self-assessed health status of non-elderly Massachusetts adults.  That's the gold standard for whether the whole law was worth it:  do people feel healthier?  Before the law, 60% rated their health as very good or excellent; afterward, 65% rated it that way. Far more people were insured, and got medical care, according to the article by Sharon K. Long, Karen Stockley and Heather Dahlen in Health Affairs in January 2012, "Massachusetts Health Reforms: Uninsurance Remains Low, Self-Reported Health Status Improves As State Prepares To Tackle Costs."

Read a story about the likely effects of universal health insurance on women's health.