12/04/2023
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT!!!!! Since its enactment on March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act has led to an historic advancement of health equity in the United States. This landmark law improved the health of all Americans, including women and families, kids, older adults, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ and communities of color. Thanks to the ACA, millions more Americans have gained health coverage without limits, and protections are in place for people with preexisting conditions. People have access to essential health benefits, including preventive and rehabilitative care, prescription drugs, wellness visits and contraceptives, mental health and substance use treatment, among many others. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to building on the success of the ACA and making health care a right for all Americans.
Below is the fact sheet highlighting some of the accomplishments of the ACA:
Health of Women and Families
Required plans cover women’s preventive health services, including birth control and counseling, well-woman visits, breast and cervical cancer screenings, prenatal care, interpersonal violence screening and counseling, and HIV screening and STI counseling, with no cost-sharing to the woman. [HRSA] [CMS]
An estimated 58 million women with private insurance currently benefit from these preventive service provisions, in addition to 37 million children with access to free preventive care. [Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation]
Allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level ($17,774 for an individual; $36,570 for a family of four) and remove categorical requirements that previously prevented many low-income people from being able to enroll in the program. Medicaid expansion – adopted by 38 states and Washington DC, as of March 2022, has connected people to coverage and improved health outcomes for women of color and families. [CMS]
Created the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) to improve the health, educational, social, and economic outcomes of expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families. The PAF has provided funds to grantees in 32 states and seven tribal organizations, serving nearly 110,000 expectant and parenting young people. [OASH]
Created the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV), which has appropriated over $4.7 billion in grants to states, territories and tribes to support home visiting services to pregnant people and parents with young children who live in communities that face greater risks and barriers to achieving positive maternal and child health outcomes. [HRSA and ACF]
MIECHV (HRSA) provided over 7.1 million home visits between 2012 and 2020, with over 925,000 home visits provided in fiscal year 2020 alone.
Since programs started implementing services, Tribal MIECHV (ACF) recipients have provided over 142,500 home visits, including virtual visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and served over 3,500 caregivers and children during FY 2021.
Provided $11 billion in funding to bolster and expand community health centers: Nearly 1,400 HRSA-funded health centers operate more than 14,000 service delivery sites that provide comprehensive and preventive health care to nearly 29 million people – 1 in 11 nationwide – in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. [HRSA]
