HARTFORD, Conn. (Dec. 18, 2019) – Patricia Baker, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation, issued the following statement about the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in the lawsuit Texas v. Azar:
“The most important thing to understand is that for now, nothing changes. The open enrollment period to buy health insurance for 2020 through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange, remains in effect, and federal financial aid is still available to help people pay for their coverage. The existing rules about coverage still apply.
“While the ruling has no immediate effect, the way this case is ultimately resolved could be consequential. If the U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturns the Affordable Care Act, it would have significant effects on Connecticut residents.
“The Affordable Care Act is the reason many thousands of state residents now have health care coverage and Connecticut’s uninsured rate is dramatically lower than a decade ago. Even those who had coverage before the health law have benefited from new protections it contains, including coverage of preventive services with no cost-sharing, a ban on lifetime limits on coverage, and a requirement that anyone be allowed to buy insurance regardless of their pre-existing conditions.”
A 2017 report on the impact of the Affordable Care Act in Connecticut identified effects on nearly everyone in the state. Among the findings in the report, which was commissioned by the Connecticut Health Foundation and produced by the Urban Institute:
- More than 160,000 state residents – 5.4 percent of the population under 65 – had health care coverage because of the health law and would likely be uninsured without it.
- People of color were especially likely to have benefited from the health law; of those who gained coverage because of the Affordable Care Act, 46 percent were people of color.
- 1.9 million people with employer-sponsored insurance gained zero-copay preventive care, protection from catastrophic costs because of the law’s ban on lifetime coverage limits, and immediate access to health insurance if they lose job-based coverage.
- Connecticut residents covered by Medicare gained access to annual physicals, mammograms, colonoscopies, and other preventive services with no out-of-pocket charges, as well as significantly more coverage for prescription drug costs by reducing the “donut hole.”
The full report on the impact of the Affordable Care Act in Connecticut is available here.
For more information, please contact Arielle Levin Becker at 860-724-1580 x 16 or arielle@cthealth.org.