The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands Medicaid eligibility to millions of previously-ineligible people, changes the income definition used to determine eligibility, and provides an enhanced federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) to newly-eligible enrollees. 

In this webinar, Dr. John Czajka, a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, discusses the eligibility challenges that states face under the ACA’s Medicaid provisions and suggests several ways that states might choose to move forward.  Joining Dr. Czajka is Karen Gibson, Director of Health Care Eligibility and Access at the Minnesota Department of Human Services.  Ms. Gibson speaks about the experience of Minnesota, which has adopted an early Medicaid expansion for adults permitted under the ACA.

This brief identifies state-level information currently available from seven federal surveys to help states monitor the impact of health reform and to compare the impacts of reform across states.  The brief provides an overview of the health insurance coverage and the health care access, use and cost questions included in each of the surveys.

State-level information is needed to plan for implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to monitor its impacts over time. Understanding the state-level impacts of the ACA will contribute to better understanding the overall impact of the law on the nation, identifying and addressing any unintended effects, and ensuring that the reforms included in the law are sustainable over time. Existing federal surveys have potential to be a valuable resource for states that do not conduct their own surveys, as well as for making state-to-state comparisons.

It also includes information on survey design and sample sizes, including sample sizes by state, for the American Community Survey (ACS), Current Population Survey (CPS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Household Component (MEPS-HC), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), and Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

Download a PDF of the brief.

Presentation by Joanna Turner, "New Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage from the American Community Survey: Increases in Uninsurance for Minnesota Children," describing the distribution of and trends in health insurance coverage for Minnesota and sub-state regions.  Presented at the 2011 Minnesota Health Services Research Conference, March 1, 2011 in St. Paul, MN.

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Presentation by Julie Sonier,  "Monitoring the Impacts of Health Reform at the State Level: Using Federal Survey Data," describing the federal data sources available to states from federal surveys to help states monitor the impact of health reform and to compare the impacts of reform across states. Presented at the 2011 Minnesota Health Services Research Conference, March 1, 2011 in St. Paul, MN.