This brief discusses recent revisions to several federal surveys that could be used to measure the impact of key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with a particular focus on how the surveys could be used to examine differences within and among states.  It provides:

• An overview of changes to the surveys and how they relate to the ACA
• Summaries of the surveys, including content, design, and sample sizes
• Information on obtaining estimates and data

This brief explores whether the relatively high estimates of direct purchase coverage in the American Community Survey (ACS) are caused by people misreporting their Medicaid coverage.  The authors examine this question using a unique version of the ACS that has been linked to Medicaid enrollment data. They find that a relatively small number of people with direct purchase in the ACS are enrolled in Medicaid on their interview date and conclude that misclassifcation of Medicaid coverage is not the main driver of high direct purchase estimates in the ACS.

Presentation by SHADAC Senior Research Fellow Elizabeth Lukanan on April 24, 2014, for the State Refor(u)m webinar, "How Am I Doing? Measuring State Health Coverage System Performance."  

Download the slides as a PDF.

This brief discusses the addition of new and modified health insurance coverage questions to the 2014 CPS. The question series was completely redesigned to:

• Improve the measure of past year coverage
• Add a point in time measure
• Collect additional information related to health reform (exchange participation and employer-offers of coverage)
• Provide coverage by month

Description

In this webinar, SHADAC Senior Research Fellow Joanna Turner provides a virtual tour of the new SHADAC Data Center. The redesigned Data Center offers improved functionality and broader appeal through an expanded range of topics, data sources, and visualization options.

As always, Data Center users can study health insurance coverage using the most current coverage estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS), the Current Population Survey (CPS), and the SHADAC-Enhanced CPS.  However, the Data Center now offers the following as well:

New Topics

• Characteristics of the uninsured (e.g., age, sex, family type, income)
• Access to care
• Access to and cost of employer-sponsored insurance

New Data Sources

• Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
• Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC)

New Ways to Display Estimates

• Maps
• Bar Charts
• Trend Lines