The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 to make health care and prescription medicine more accessible. Did it succeed?
In March 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law. Its aims included expanding and revamping Medicaid and Medicare; offering affordable health insurance for all population groups; introducing regulated health insurance exchange markets to ensure competitive pricing for insurance; and supporting innovative medical care delivery methods to lower health care costs.
For older Americans, the ACA represented an important financial benefit. “The ACA gradually closed Medicare Part D’s doughnut hole [the gap in coverage] between 2010 and 2020, which enabled millions of [older Americans] in that program to more easily afford their prescriptions,” noted the authors of a 2020 study published in Health Affairs. Young adults also benefited because their parents’ health insurance could cover them through December 31 of the year they reached 26 years of age. Americans living at or slightly above the poverty level also received financial relief—and, to a certain extent, the middle class (more on that later).
Overall, the law was vast, complex, and driven by genuine need. According to KFF, a nonprofit organization devoted to policy research and polling on national health issues, “In the years leading up to the passage of the ACA, about 14% to 16% of people in the United States were uninsured [across all ages]. By 2023, the uninsured rate had fallen to a record low of 7.7%. Most of the gains in insurance coverage have come from the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, followed by the creation of the exchange markets.”
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