Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) have urged the Census Bureau to continue asking old health insurance questions in addition to planned new questions in its annual survey for two more years.
In a letter to Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson, the lawmakers advocated for collecting census data using both the old and revised health insurance questions this year and next year in order to properly assess the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. "Of course we always want the best statistical information, but the collection of only one year of comparable data is insufficient," the senators wrote. "Continuing to collect data using both the old and new survey questions will help ensure that you do not conflate a change in measurement with changes due to implementation of the new healthcare law."
The senators wrote the letter in response to a report from The New York Times that stated significant revisions to the health insurance questions included in the Census Bureau's annual survey will make it hard to measure the PPACA's effect on the uninsured rate. According to the Census Bureau, the old survey produced an erroneously inflated estimate of the uninsured population. Previously, the census asked people if they had various kinds of health insurance coverage during the previous year. However, consumers had a tendency to instead give answers about their insurance at the time of the survey. The new questionnaire asks them about their coverage status at the time of the interview, according to the report.
Yesterday, the White House announced PPACA exchange enrollment has reached 8 million. However, it isn't clear how many of those enrollees were previously uninsured.
More Articles on the PPACA:
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Census Changes Could Hinder Measurement of PPACA Impact