The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) represents the most significant legislative change in the United States health care system in nearly half a century. Key elements of the ACA include reforms aimed at addressing high-cost, complex, vulnerable patient populations. Older adults with mental health disorders are a rapidly growing segment of the population and are among the most ch...

Employers have been afforded new opportunities with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). ACA creates a unique opportunity for employers to take a fresh, strategically based total compensation approach to planning. The concept of a total compensation framework is not new; however, a new way to achieve this approach is now possible. Employers need to create their own level playing fiel...

With the U.S. health care system in the midst of a major transition spurred on by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is renewed debate over key health workforce policy issues. Health insurance coverage is expanding under the ACA, which will likely lead to increased demand for health care services. Longer-term, there will be increased emphasis on value, efficiency, and accountability within th...

Increasingly, Americans are relying on coverage through a family member to maintain continuous insurance when their own employersponsored insurance (ESI) ends. Meanwhile, employers have responded by limiting access to and imposing surcharges on dependent coverage elections. Between 2005 and 2013, adults who transitioned off ESI became likely to enroll in a non-group plan and were twice as likel...

ISSUE: Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one-third of women who tried to buy a health plan on their own were either turned down, charged a higher premium because of their health, or had specific health problems excluded from their plans. Beginning in 2010, ACA consumer protections, particularly coverage for preventive care screenings with no cost-sharing and a ban on plan benefit limits, ...

This paper provides early evidence on the impact of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014 on the decision to be self-employed. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we utilize pre-reform variation in state individual market health insurance regulations, and find that the ACA did not have a differential impact on self-employment rates in states for which the ACA wa...

In this study, RAND Corporation researchers assess the expected change in enrollment and premiums in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)-compliant individual market in federally facilitated marketplace (FFM) states if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to eliminate subsidies in FFM states. The analysis used the Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts (COMPARE) microsimulation mo...

The United States’ health care system is currently undergoing the most dramatic transformation since the creation of Medicare. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) set to occur within the coming months, there continues to be a quest to seek out how to do more in ways that will utilize our limited resources more efficiently. A central element of the ACA is the Triple Aim, whi...

Lisa A. Lowenthal is an Occupational Therapy Graduate Student, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT. Primary care is a key theme in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA; 2010). But what does the term mean? Is there a difference between primary care and primary health care? Does primary care encompass occupational therapy? What are the possible roles for occupational therapy in prima...

Lisa A. Lowenthal is an Occupational Therapy Graduate Student, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT. Primary care is a key theme in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA; 2010). But what does the term mean? Is there a difference between primary care and primary health care? Does primary care encompass occupational therapy? What are the possible roles for occupational therapy in prima...