How Did the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion Affect Coverage and Access to Care for Low-Income Parents Who Were Eligible for Medicaid Before the Law Was Passed?

This journal article assesses the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion on coverage and access to care for a subset of low-income parents who were already eligible for Medicaid before the ACA was passed. Researchers found that the expansion reduced uninsurance among previously eligible parents by 12.6 percentage points, or a 40 percent decline from their 2012–2013 uninsurance rate. The results find no significant increases in provider access problems for previously eligible parents and very limited evidence that the Medicaid expansion was associated with more constrained provider capacity.