Health Insurance Before and After the Affordable Care Act

• In Event: 480 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Health Policy

Abstract

Little research has examined the effect of the Affordable Care Act on health insurance status in the United States after its full implementation as data were released only recently. This study analyzes changes in health insurance status and its determinants before and after the Affordable Care Act took full effect on January 1, 2014. Data from the 2009 and 2014 National Health Interview Surveys are used to address our research problem and test our hypotheses. The analysis of descriptive statistics shows that the national health insurance rate increased modestly from 84.6 percent in 2009 to 88.5 percent in 2014. The results of logistic regression analysis reveal that age, gender, race, marital status, nativity, U.S. citizenship status, education, and poverty level influenced health insurance status consistently before and after the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2014. While the effects of several predictors were either identical or similar in both years, holding other variables constant the foreign-born, the poor, and blacks had increased odds of getting health insurance in 2014 than in 2009. The findings help assess the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act.

Authors

• Jesse Patrick, Texas Woman's University

• Philip Q. Yang, Texas Woman's University