Health insurance companies in states where insurance is sold through their own exchanges are giving the law’s supporters more protection than they might have expected.
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health Policy Insights Project analyzed the number of people who have gained coverage since the law took effect.
We found that about 30 percent of the state’s uninsured gained coverage in the first six months of this year.
That compares to 22 percent of people in states that didn’t expand their Medicaid programs, the analysis found.
But in most states, the uninsured gained only about 2 percent of their state’s total number of uninsured people.
Those states that expanded Medicaid and those that did not, as well as those that expanded under the ACA’s expansion, have been particularly generous in giving people access to affordable coverage, the study found.
In Florida, for instance, the number was only 6 percent, compared to 27 percent in states without expansion, according to the Kaiser analysis.
The state was particularly generous with its subsidies.
That allowed more than 10,000 Floridians to receive coverage through a subsidy program that helps people buy coverage on their own.
In addition to expanding Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act also provides protections for people with preexisting conditions.
Those protections, which are not included in the new law, include a federal subsidy for those who qualify.
For people with pre-existing conditions, those subsidies also could be used to purchase coverage through their insurance companies.
Kaiser noted that those subsidies are not meant to replace Medicaid, but to help those people buy insurance on their behalf.
It’s important to note that the federal subsidies for insurance are a separate program from the Medicaid expansion and that Medicaid’s federal subsidies are in addition to those from the ACA.