Researchers have tried to estimate how the Affordable Care Act would affect each state if the major health coverage provisions were already in effect.
Republicans are working through Congress, the courts and state governments to try to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act – the federal legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Even if the Obama administration succeeds at implementing the act as written, many major provisions will not take effect until 2014.
But researchers at the Urban Institute, Washington, have tried to illustrate how the act might work by estimating how the major coverage subsidy and distribution provisions might affect coverage in each state and the District of Columbia if all provisions included were in effect today.
The researchers concluded that the percentage of nonelderly residents without coverage would drop in all jurisdictions. In New England, for example, the uninsured rate would drop to 4.7%, from 8.9%, the researchers say.
The national uninsured rate would fall to 8.7%, from about 19%, the researchers predict.
The researchers acknowledge that there are weaknesses in their methods. They are only starting to incorporate states’ individual health insurance rules in their forecasting model.