The Affordable Care Act has reduced socioeconomic disparities in access to health care in the U.S.

According to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs,

Health care access for people in lower socioeconomic strata improved in both states that did expand eligibility for Medicaid under the ACA and states that did not. However, gains were larger in expansion states. The absolute gap in insurance coverage between people in households with annual incomes below $25,000 and those in households with incomes above $75,000 fell from 31 percent to 17 percent (a relative reduction of 46 percent) in expansion states and from 36 percent to 28 percent in nonexpansion states (a 23 percent reduction). This serves as evidence that socioeconomic disparities in health care access narrowed significantly under the ACA.

Addressing socioeconomic barriers to access to care has long been one of the major roles private safety-net hospitals play in their individual communities.

Learn more about how the study was conducted and what it revealed in the article “The Affordable Care Act Reduced Socioeconomic Disparities In Health Care Access,” which can be found here, on the Health Affairs web site.