Friday, March 23 marks the two-year anniversary of the passage of the nation’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and next week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether it is constitutional, with a ruling expected early this summer. Social workers strongly support the law because it makes vital improvements to health care access, quality and services for millions of Americans with health and behavioral health needs. Through our Legal Defense Fund, NASW filed amicus briefs in support of the law regarding the individual mandate to purchase health insurance and Medicaid expansion. Likewise, a blog posted earlier this month outlined what’s at stake with the Supreme Court
challenge to the ACA.
Below are additional resources from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the benefits of the ACA.
White House Report on the ACA – Two Years Later
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/careact.pdf
ACA State-by-State Numbers
Two years after the passage of the ACA, it has continued to provide thousands of Americans with insurance protections, preventive benefits, and resources to improve care. For more information on the benefits of the law in a particular state, please go to http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/index.html.
ACA PowerPoints
HHS posted educational PowerPoints about the ACA online. Please go to http://www.hhs.gov/intergovernmental/acaresources/ to find these PowerPoints. There are both PowerPoint versions which include a presentation guide in the notes section as well as a PDF version.
ACA Fact Sheets on Healthcare.gov
HHS fact sheets on health care.gov will be helpful to you. Some of the key links are below and here is the link to the general brochure/fact sheet page http://www.healthcare.gov/news/brochures/index.html.
The Top Five Things You Need to Know
- Families with Children (PDF – English 7.27 MB, Spanish 1.23 MB)
- Health Care Providers (PDF – English 2.71 MB, Spanish 517 KB)
- People with Disabilities (PDF – English 2.56 MB, Spanish 931 KB)
- Seniors (PDF – English 11.3 MB, Spanish 1.54 MB)
- Small Business Owners (PDF – English 4.22 MB, Spanish 646 KB)
- Young Adults (PDF – English 6.56 MB, Spanish 919 KB)
Information for Consumers and Small Businesses
- The Health Care Law & You (PDF – English 8.99 MB)
- Information for Small Businesses (PDF – English 763 KB)
