New Science Research from Stanford University Described (The risk of losing health insurance in the United States is large, and remained so after the Affordable Care Act): Science

2023 MAY 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Fresh data on science are presented in a new report. According to news reporting out of Stanford University by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Health insurance coverage in the United States is highly uncertain.”

Funders for this research include National Institute of Aging.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Stanford University: “In the post-Affordable Care Act (ACA), pre-COVID United States, we estimate that while 12.5% of individuals under 65 are uninsured at a point in time, twice as many-one in four-are uninsured at some point over a 2-y period. Moreover, the risk of losing insurance remained virtually unchanged with the introduction of the landmark ACA. Risk of insurance loss is particularly high for those with health insurance through Medicaid or private exchanges; they have a 20% chance of losing coverage at some point over a 2-y period, compared to 8.5% for those with employer-provided coverage.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Those who lose insurance can experience prolonged periods without coverage; about half are still uninsured 6 mo later, and almost one-quarter are uninsured for the subsequent 2 y. These facts suggest that research and policy attention should focus not only on the “headline number” of the share of the population uninsured at a point in time, but also on the stability and certainty (or lack thereof) of being insured.”

For more information on this research see: The risk of losing health insurance in the United States is large, and remained so after the Affordable Care Act. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023,120(18). The publisher for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2222100120.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Liran Einav, Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Additional authors for this research include Amy Finkelstein.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the author of this research: Liran Einav (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3349-5356).

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)