New Health Insurance Study Findings Recently Were Reported by Researchers at University of Wisconsin (Effects of the Affordable Care Act’s Dependent…

Insurance Weekly News

New Health Insurance Study Findings Recently Were Reported by Researchers at University of Wisconsin (Effects of the Affordable Care Act's Dependent Coverage Mandate on Private Health Insurance Coverage in Urban and Rural Areas)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Research findings on Health Insurance are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from Madison, Wisconsin, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "PurposeTo evaluate the impact of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) dependent coverage mandate on insurance coverage among young adults in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from 2006-2009 and 2011 waves of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Wisconsin, "A difference-in-difference analysis was used to compare changes in full-year private health insurance coverage among young adults aged 19-25 years with an older cohort aged 27-34 years. Separate regressions were estimated for individuals in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and were tested for a differential impact by area of residence. FindingsFull-year private health insurance coverage significantly increased by 9.2 percentage points for young adults compared to the older cohort after the ACA mandate (P = .00). When stratifying the regression model by residence area, insurance coverage among young adults significantly increased by 9.0 percentage points in metropolitan areas (P = .00) and 10.1 percentage points in nonmetropolitan areas (P = .03). These changes were not significantly different from each other (P = .82), which suggests the ACA mandate's effects were not statistically different by area of residence. ConclusionsAlthough young adults in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas experienced increased access to private health insurance following the ACA's dependent coverage mandate, it did not appear to directly impact rural-urban disparities in health insurance coverage."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Despite residents in both areas gaining insurance coverage, over one-third of young adults still lacked access to full-year health insurance coverage."

For more information on this research see: Effects of the Affordable Care Act's Dependent Coverage Mandate on Private Health Insurance Coverage in Urban and Rural Areas. Journal of Rural Health, 2017;33(1):5-11. Journal of Rural Health can be contacted at: Wiley-Blackwell, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Journal of Rural Health - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1748-0361)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from K.A. Look, University of Wisconsin, Sch Pharm, Social & Adm Sci Div, Madison, WI 53706, United States. Additional authors for this research include N.H. Kim and P. Arora.