U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin: The Affordable Care Act is Working for Wisconsin

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin released the following figures highlighting how the Affordable Care Act is working for Wisconsin:

• In Wisconsin, 207,349 consumers selected or were automatically re-enrolled in quality, affordable health insurance coverage through the Marketplace as of Feb. 22. Nationwide, nearly 11.7 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically enrolled in Marketplace coverage.

• Gallup recently announced that the uninsured rate in Wisconsin in 2014 was 8.4 percent, down from 11.7 percent in 2013. Nationwide, since the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion began, about 16.4 million uninsured people have gained health insurance coverage - the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades. 

• Health insurance companies now have to spend at least 80 cents of your premium dollar on health care or improvements to care, rather than administrative costs like salaries or marketing, or they have to provide you a refund. This means that 69,396 Wisconsinites with private insurance coverage benefited from $2,584,967 in refunds from insurance companies.

• Wisconsin has received $4,958,844 under the new law to help fight unreasonable premium increases. 2,142,000 people in Wisconsin, including 791,000 women and 580,000 children, are free from worrying about lifetime limits on coverage. 

• As many as 2,489,279 non-elderly Wisconsinites have some type of pre-existing health condition, including 309,519 children. Today, health insurers can no longer deny coverage to anyone because of a pre-existing condition, like asthma or diabetes, under the health care law.  And they can no longer charge women more because of their gender.

• The health care law expands mental health and substance use disorder benefits and federal parity protections for 62 million Americans nationwide, including 1,017,692 Wisconsinites.

• Because of the Affordable Care Act, 76 million Americans with private health insurance gained preventive service coverage with no cost-sharing, including 1,539,000 in Wisconsin. And women can now get coverage without cost-sharing of even more preventive services they need.  Of the 76 million Americans with expanded access to free preventive services, 29.7 million are women, including 587,000 in Wisconsin receiving expanded preventive services without cost-sharing.

• Through Fiscal Year 2013, Wisconsin has received $34,210,714 in grants from the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the health care law. This fund was created to support effective policies in Wisconsin and nationwide, such as initiatives focused on tobacco cessation, obesity prevention, health coverage enrollment assistance and increasing the primary care and public health workforce, so that all Americans can lead longer, more productive lives. 

• In Wisconsin, people with Medicare have saved nearly $260,821,882 on prescription drugs because of the Affordable Care Act.  In 2014 alone, 89,404 individuals in Wisconsin saved over $81,650,077, or an average of $913 per beneficiary.  In 2015, people with Medicare in the “donut hole” received a 55 percent discount on covered brand name drugs and a 35 percent discount on generic drugs. And thanks to the health care law, coverage for both brand name and generic drugs will continue to increase over time until the coverage gap is closed. 

• With no deductibles or co-pays, cost is no longer a barrier for seniors and people with disabilities who want to stay healthy by detecting and treating health problems early. In Wisconsin, 744,549 individuals with Medicare used one or more free preventive service in 2014.