5 Years Later: A Look at the Affordable Care Act’s Success by the Numbers
Five years ago today, on March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, opening the door to quality, affordable healthcare to millions of Americans. Despite over 50 failed votes by Republicans to repeal or undermine the consumer protections, financial assistance, and expanded coverage options provided by the Affordable Care Act, the health care law continues to work for American families across the country. Here’s a look at how it’s working, by the numbers:
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16.4 million – Number of previously uninsured Americans who have gained quality, affordable health coverage since the ACA became law
- 130 million: Number of Americans with pre-existing conditions who can no longer be denied coverage for having a pre-existing condition
- 105 million: Number of Americans who no longer have a lifetime limit on their health coverage.
- 14 million: Number of adults who did not get needed health care because of cost declined by 14 million between 2012 and 2014 [Commonwealth Fund, January 2015]
- 11.7 million: Number of people who enrolled in 2015 coverage through the federal and state exchanges
- 9.5 million: Number of people, living in states that have expanded their Medicaid programs, who have gained Medicaid/CHIP coverage since July-September 2013, compared to 1.6 million in non-expansion states
- 8.7 million: Number of women with individual insurance who have gained maternity coverage
- 7.7 million: Number of people who will receive subsidies in 2015 in the roughly three-dozen states using HealthCare.gov – a figure that has held steady since the Affordable Care Act’s first year [The Hill, 3/10/15]
- 5.7 million: Number of young adults under 26 years old who’ve gained coverage since 2010
- 50,000: Estimate of fewer patient deaths due to the reduction in hospital-acquired conditions [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, December 2014]
- 13 years: Number of years the life of the Medicare Trust Fund has been extended since the Affordable Care Act became law
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12.9 percent: Percentage of uninsured Americans for the fourth quarter of 2014, which fell from 20.3 percent since the first open enrollment period began in October 2013 [Gallup, 1/7/15]
- 43 percent: How much the young adult (ages 19-25) uninsured rate has fallen since 2010
- 41 percent: How much the uninsured rate for African American adults has fallen since the first open enrollment period
- 35 percent: How much the uninsured rate for non-elderly adults has fallen since the first open enrollment period
- 29 percent: How much the uninsured rate for Latino adults has fallen since the first open enrollment period
- 11 percent: How much less the Affordable Care Act will cost the federal government during the next ten years than was previously estimated [U.S. News & World Report, 3/9/15]
- 9 percent: How much the rate of hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) declined from 2012 to 2013 [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, December 2014]
- 3.5 percent: How much the rate of people without health insurance has dropped in the last year, its lowest level in the seven years for which Gallup data is available [Gallup, 2/24/15]
- 3 percent: Average premium cost drop in counties where a new carrier is offering the cheapest plan [Kaiser, 12/1/14]
- 1.4 percent: How much national health expenditures rose in 2013, slower than the 1.5 percent increase in real per capita GDP in 2013 and marking the three slowest years of growth (2011, 2012, 2013) in real per capita national health expenditures since record-keeping began in 1960
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$431 billion: How much lower CBO projects the deficit to be over the next ten years than what was previously projected, largely due to slower private health insurance spending growth as a result of the Affordable Care Act [CBO, 3/9/15]
- $116 billion: Taxpayer dollars saved through new Medicare efficiencies
- $15 billion: Prescription drug savings that 9.4 million seniors have enjoyed since 2010, with an average of $1,598 per beneficiary, by shrinking the Medicare prescription drug donut hole
- $12 billion: Estimate of health care cost savings from 2010 to 2013 due to the reduction in hospital-acquired conditions [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, December 2014]
- $9 billion: Consumer savings since 2011 because the ACA requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on consumers’ health care and empowers states to review and negotiate premium increases.
- $263 – Average tax credit per month for people in states using HealthCare.gov [New York Times, 3/10/15]
- $101 – Average premium paid by consumers in the federal exchange after tax credits [New York Times, 3/10/15]
Unless otherwise noted, all figures from the White House.
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