Health Insurance and Health Outcomes: How Does Health Insurance Change Patient Health Behavior?

Since the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, the individual and employer mandates to obtain or provide coverage for individuals and employees, designs to reduce the number of uninsured. Prior research indicated that low-income uninsured individuals and families avoided obtaining appropriate care due to the cost, lack of access to health care providers, and overuse of emergency rooms. Consequently, does obtaining health insurance improve health outcomes, access to providers, and the cost of care? This research not only answers this question but also discovers that prior research overestimated the actions of the uninsured to receive care. The under and uninsured did not frequent the emergency rooms as proposed and after receiving insurance at no cost, the patients' health outcomes remained the same prior to receiving care. Ultimately, the question remains, is health insurance the answer to health reform in the United States?