Health Policy

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) makes improvements to Medicare to increase accessibility and affordability of prescription drugs for Medicare enrollees, reduce the rate of growth in Medicare drug spending, and improve the financial sustainability of the Medicare program.

Recent legislative and administrative policy initiatives have built on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of health insurance coverage and improvements in access to and utilization of health care services.

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions, the uninsured rate among nonelderly Black Americans decreased by 10 percentage points, from 20.9 percent in 2010 to 10.8 percent in 2022.

Patient navigation provides support and information to patients and their families to help navigate the complexities of health care services. These programs or services may include providing support and resources to inform clinical patient choices, financial responsibilities, and available social and community services.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is helping people with Medicare, including nearly 30 million women enrolled in Part D. Our review shows that, in 2020, about 733,000 women enrolled in Part D and B would have benefited from the IRA’s $35 insulin cap and, in 2021, about 2 million women would not have had any out-of-pocket costs for recommended adult vaccines covered by Part D.

This issue brief presents Marketplace enrollment and plan selections by race and ethnicity among 2015-2023 Open Enrollment Period enrollees in HealthCare.gov states using combined self-reported race and ethnicity information with imputed data for missing values.

The Affordable Care Act substantially transformed the market for non-group private health insurance, introducing new consumer protections and coverage standards and establishing Health Insurance Marketplaces.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) expanded financial assistance in Medicare’s Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) Program would have benefited nearly 461,000 Partial LIS enrollees had the provision been in effect in 2020. An additional 2.9 million Part D enrollees who were eligible but not enrolled in LIS would also have benefited from the program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) envisions a future in which everyone, regardless of their social circumstances, has access to aligned health and social care systems that achieve equitable outcomes through high-quality, affordable, person-centered care. This Call to Action complements the companion U.S.

ASPE, in partnership with the Administration for Community Living, commissioned the RAND Corporation to better understand existing approaches to coordinating health and social care services through backbone organizations, with a focus on one particular model, community care hubs (Hubs).