Efficacy of the Affordable Care Act: Analyzing the Differential Impact of the ACA in "Red" and " Blue" States

Abstract

Abstract: This thesis aims to prove that the Affordable Care Act would be a far more effective system if states were more open to and involved in each step of the ACA’s implementation process. This hypothesis is established by showing that states which are proactive advocates of the ACA, defined as those that opt to take on the burden of running their own exchanges and accept Medicaid expansion, “blue states”, see much greater gains in total health insurance levels as well as across major formerly disenfranchised demographic groups as compared to states that take a more passive role throughout, or “red states”. I use healthcare and demographic data between 2010-2015 from Ipums-CPS.Org. My analysis of the regressions takes into account the specific healthcare legislation that is introduced during each year. My findings are that uninsured rates seem to fall at a greater rate by the end of 2015 and the gap in uninsured between formerly disenfranchised groups and the well-off decreases in more state involved healthcare systems.