Visualize It!

For the second consecutive year, Health & Disability Advocates (HDA) has released its Visualizing Health Care Reform tool, a unique, interactive map that allows users to see a geographic and demographic breakdown of uninsured state residents who will be eligible for healthcare coverage when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented beginning in 2014.

The visualization is an especially practical tool for groups in the public, private and non-profit sectors, who are planning how they will meet the demand for information and for assistance to connect individuals with the new health care options. The interactive map allows users to pinpoint data for 87 Illinois communities, or roll up to larger regions around the state. The latest release of the tool provides geographic and demographic breakdowns of those who will become eligible for coverage in Illinois, as well as the undocumented non-citizens who do not have a new path to coverage.

The AP covered the tool yesterday and focused in on the over 40,000 uninsured veterans in Illinois - 32% (13,000) of whom will be newly eligible for Medicaid in Illinois, as long as the Medicaid expansion passes the legislature.

HDA CEO, Barbara Otto, was featured on WGN News illustrating how to use the tool.

With Visualizing Health Care Reform, we hope to help build an on-ramp to affordable health care for eligible individuals and families while also helping those on the implementation side to plan for a smooth and effective transition.

Please share the tool with your networks and email us if you have questions!

See into the future of health care reform

Illinois Health Matters has released a new data visualization tool, “Visualizing Health Care Reform in 2014,” for understanding the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Illinois. This easy-to-use, interactive tool maps the State and shows who is currently uninsured, how many of those people will become insured, and how they will access health insurance as the major provisions of the ACA go into effect in 2014.

Infographics such as “Visualizing Health Care Reform” are valuable aids for understanding complex concepts, such as the impact of health care reform. By using data to illustrate public policy outcomes, people and policymakers can make informed, data-driven decisions.

This tool is the first of its kind to illustrate the future impact of health care reform at the state level. It also gives a valuable glimpse of how crucial these reforms will be for more than 1.6 million uninsured Illinoisans through Medicaid expansion and the new state Health Care Exchange (or “Marketplace). Clearly, businesses and communities across the state have a lot of work to do to gear up to meet the potential demand.

This is just part of the story. The impact of the new health law is even more far-reaching. For every Illinoisan who will gain access to coverage via Medicaid or the Exchange in 2014, there are others who already benefit, such as the young adults who get to remain insured via their parents’ insurance until age 26 or the children and adults whose health has benefitted from the wide range of preventative care services that insurance companies are now required to cover.

For information on how the law can help you or your community now, go to Illinois Health Matters, sign up for our monthly newsletter, or ask a question. For more on the data used in this tool, go here.