Research Guides: Health Policy Research Guide: Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act actually refers to two separate pieces of legislation; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) aka "PPACA" and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152) that, together expanded Medicaid coverage to millions of low-income Americans and made numerous improvements to the terms of coverage.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) "puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health."

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Article and legislative history databases

PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

ProQuest Congressional
Track legislative histories using this resource, which goes back to 1789.

GoogleScholar
An interdisciplinary web search for scholarly materials, including journal articles, books, dissertations, and more. Accessing Google Scholar through this guide will provide direct links to HSL's full text journal subscriptions.

Some important sources of ACA Information

HealthCare.gov
A health insurance exchange website operated under the United States federal government under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, designed to serve the residents of the thirty-six U.S. states that opted not to create their own state exchanges.
Health Reform Implementation Timeline
A Kaiser Family Foundation interactive tool designed to explain how and when the provisions of the Affordable Care Act will be implemented over the next several years.
HHS About the Affordable Care Act
Kaiser Family Foundation Health Reform
Provides substantial data and polling information on attitudes toward and figures related to healthcare reform.
Kaiser Family Foundation State Marketplace Profiles
An in-depth look at the progress in setting up health insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges by state.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine - The Affordable Care Act
The NNLM's comprehensive ACA LibGuide.
RAND Corporation's health care reform research
Research on various aspects of health care reform
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration on ACA
Information from HRSA on programs related to the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. Department of Labor on the Affordable Care Act
Includes information on ACA Regulations & Guidance, Mandated Research Studies &Surveys, News & Official Statements and the Law.

ACA Data Sets

Data.Healthcare.Gov
A federal government website managed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Health and dental datasets for researchers and issuers
The downloadable datasets linked to below will be most useful to researchers, issuers, and others who have a need for the raw data about qualified health plans and stand-alone dental plans offered on healthcare.gov.
HealthData.gov
This site provides access to health data in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.
Kaiser Family Foundation Health Reform
Provides substantial data and polling information on attitudes toward and figures related to healthcare reform.
Medicaid State Fact Sheets
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health and long-term care coverage to more than 70 million low-income children, pregnant women, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities in the United States. Medicaid is a major source of funding for hospitals, community health centers, physicians, and nursing homes. Federal policy proposals to restructure Medicaid could fundamentally change the scope and financing of the program. The two-page fact sheets provide a snapshot with key data for Medicaid in every state related to current coverage, access and financing.
State Health Facts
State Health Facts is a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and provides free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the United States, counties, territories, and other geographies. State Health Facts is comprised of more than 800 health indicators and provides users with the ability to map, rank, trend, and download data. Data come from a variety of public and private sources, including Kaiser Family Foundation reports, public websites, government surveys and reports, and private organizations. Data presented on State Health Facts are updated or added as new data become available; the update schedule varies from indicator to indicator. The availability of older or “archived” data is limited and varies by indicator.