What's Left of the Affordable Care Act?

Authors

Helen Levy, Institute for Social Research at the University of MichiganFollow
Andrew Ying, The Johns Hopkins University School of MedicineFollow
Nicholas Bagley, The University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2020

Abstract

We assess the progress of the Affordable Care Act a decade after it became law. Although most of it remains intact, some parts have been repealed and others have not been implemented as expected. We review how and why the law has aged. Legal challenges have done less damage than is commonly appreciated, with the exception of the Supreme Court case that thwarted full expansion of Medicaid. Most of the important changes have other sources. Some parts were born to fail. Others were dismantled in response to interest-group pressure. Still others have failed to thrive for any number of reasons. Finally, the sabotage campaign by the Trump administration has had modest effects so far, but could pose a serious threat in the coming years.

Comments

The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Recommended Citation

Bagley, Nicholas. "What's Left of the Affordable Care Act? A Progress Report." Helen Levy and Andrew Ying, co-authors. RSF: Russell Sage Found. J. Soc. Sci. 6, no. 2 (2020): 42-66.