Women and Healthcare Affordability After the ACA

Excerpt

Women historically had specific challenges in affording and accessing healthcare prior to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of insurance benefits in 2014.¹ Compared with men, women were more likely to report cost-related access problems, have lower average incomes, and have greater use of healthcare services, including reproductive care.² Cost-related barriers to healthcare were greater for uninsured and low-income women.¹ After the ACA, gender rating, where women could be charged more than men for the same coverage in the individual insurance market, was prohibited. In addition, the ACA mandated maternity and preventive service coverage, including contraceptives, without cost sharing.¹Despite these improvements in insurance benefits, disparities in cost-related medication nonadherence still remain greater for women compared with men.³ With the unique healthcare affordability challenges among women, we hypothesized there would be differential effects of the ACA on healthcare affordability for women based on income level. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of the ACA on healthcare and prescription medication affordability for women. …