Study: ACA has little impact on ‘churning’

The Affordable Care Act has not had a significant impact on whether people with lower incomes maintain steady health insurance coverage, a new study finds (Source: “ACA Hasn’t Changed Effects of ‘Churning,’ Study Finds,” Morning Consult, Oct. 4, 2016).

About a quarter of low-income adults in three states have experienced a change in their health insurance coverage (known as “churning”) under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study released this week by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the journal Health Affairs. Maintaining insurance coverage over time can remain difficult under the law, the researchers found.

“We found that the ACA has not worsened the problem of churning, as some had predicted, but it hasn’t fixed it either,” Benjamin Sommers, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “People who switched coverage reported frequent periods when they didn’t have any insurance, as well as high rates of skipping medications, having to switch doctors, and receiving low-quality care.”

The researchers surveyed 3,000 low-income adults in Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas last year, and found that nearly 25 percent of respondents in each state said they had switched their insurance coverage during the previous 12 months.