The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have far-reaching effects on health insurance coverage, health care financing, and health care delivery in the United States. Understanding the state-level implications of the ACA allows for more clarity on the national impact of the law and provides information to shape ongoing state implementation activities.
A report by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), funded by CHCF, describes how California can measure the impact of health reform in three areas:
- Health insurance coverage
- Affordability and comprehensiveness of health insurance coverage
- Access to health care services
Within each of the three focus areas of this project, the report identifies several categories of metrics needed to track the impact of the ACA. It recommends a total of 51 measures that California can use to monitor health care reform over time.
SHADAC also reviews existing state and national data sources to determine how each source might be used to measure the effects of the ACA in California, identifies gaps in the data needed to chart the progress of reform, and makes recommendations for how to fill these gaps.
Finally, SHADAC identifies different ways to analyze and present the recommended measures to policymakers and the public to inform them about the impact of health reform in California.
The complete report and an executive summary are available for download on the SHADAC site through the External Link below.