Disability, Federal Disability Benefits, and Health Care Access After the Affordable Care Act

Abstract

Limited research considers whether differences in health care access and utilization exist for individuals with a disability with and without receipt of federal disability benefits in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) era. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data (2014–2016) are used to estimate the relationship between federal disability benefit receipt and health care access and utilization for individuals with a disability, controlling for disability benefit application, and predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics. Study results show that individuals with a disability receiving federal disability benefits have increased odds of seeing any provider (odds ratio [OR]: 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.12, 2.01]) and decreased odds of worrying about the costs of health care (OR: 0.68; 95% CI = [0.57, 0.80]) and delaying needed medical care due to costs (OR: 0.50; 95% CI = [0.42, 0.61]) versus nonrecipients with a disability. Findings highlight the continued importance to address disabled nonrecipients’ health care access and utilization barriers in the post-ACA period.

The association between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and healthcare affordability among US adults with intellectual disability

“…2018; Winkelman & Chang 2018), it has not entirely closed the gap in healthcare disparities based on disability, age, race and economic status (Buchmueller et al . 2016; Kaye 2019; Pellegrini & Geissler 2021). Moreover, while existing studies emphasise the role of the ACA in increasing the affordability of medical services for persons with various health conditions (Mojtabai et al .…”

“…However, regardless of these legislative and technical issues, evidence to date demonstrates that the ACA increased health insurance coverage and care access for vulnerable groups, including working-age adults with disabilities (Porterfield & Huang 2016;Kennedy et al 2017;Lipton et al 2019). Although the full implementation of the ACA in 2014 substantially improved healthcare access (Thomas et al 2018;Winkelman & Chang 2018), it has not entirely closed the gap in healthcare disparities based on disability, age, race and economic status (Buchmueller et al 2016;Kaye 2019;Pellegrini & Geissler 2021). Moreover, while existing studies emphasise the role of the ACA in increasing the affordability of medical services for persons with various health conditions (Mojtabai et al 2019;Angier et al 2020), there is no empirical research to date examining the association between the ACA and healthcare access among persons with ID.…”