Early Estimates Indicate Rapid Increase in Health Insurance Coverage under the ACA: A Promising Start

By the end of March, enrollment in Marketplace plans created by the ACA was reported at just over 7 million and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported that Medicaid enrollment increased between the beginning of October 2013 and the end of February 2014. However, neither the Marketplace enrollment figures nor the CMS Medicaid report provide an accurate picture of how many uninsured people have gained coverage since open enrollment began, because both sets of enrollment figures may include newly insured people as well as those who had other sources of coverage before 2014. This report uses the March 2014 Health Reform Monitoring Survey to examine changes in health insurance coverage in early March 2014 relative to coverage over the prior year, including more disaggregated information on coverage changes and additional details on the statistical precision of the estimates.