The Capacity of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to Inform the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted with major provisions to expand health insurance coverage, control health care costs, and improve the health care delivery system. Essential data resources will be required for effective program planning, administration, and management, in addition to facilitating evaluations of program performance. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is one of the core data resources that has been used to inform several provisions of the ACA. This paper provides a summary of the capacity of the MEPS to inform program planning, implementation, and evaluations of program performance for several components of the ACA.