Obamacare Report: States Benefiting Most & Least

From Wallet Hub, December, 2013

The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare, was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and has remained front and center in the public consciousness ever since. It has in turn become a symbol of political divisiveness, the subject of Supreme Court scrutiny, a hostage on the world economic stage, and the victim of technical difficulties. In short, the ACA is no longer really about health care reform in the minds of many.

The law has also undergone significant changes in recent years. Not only did the Supreme Court alter the scope of the ACA’s prescribed Medicaid expansion by making it a state’s decision and lessening the repercussions of opting-out, but the White House also decided to delay by a year the law’s mandate that employers with more than 50 employees provide health insurance.

This has only added to the confusion and politicization that is to be expected with any significant national reform measure, leading to countless questions about the law’s ultimate impact on daily life as well as who stands to benefit most and least as a result of its implementation.

This report sought to cut through the rhetoric and uncertainty to provide an unbiased, non-partisan assessment of how the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act will affect each state from a purely economic standpoint, considering both the state government and individual perspectives. More specifically, we analyzed publicly available data using 11 metrics designed to gauge the impact of key provisions of the law on major consumer segments as well as each state’s budget, ultimately arriving at overall rankings for the states that stand to benefit most and least as a result of the ACA.

More information about our findings, methodology, and the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act itself can be found below.

Hawaii:

• Rank 33rd
• Hypothetical Rank 43rd

Largest & Smallest Percentage of <65 Population with a Preexisting Condition

Most & Least Savings on Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses

Most & Least Savings on Uncompensated Care Per Capita

LINK: Methodology & Acknowledgements

PBN: Hawaii taxpayers getting their money's worth — and then some — under ACA