Access to Affordable Care through Public Libraries

This article presents a study of activity that occurred in public libraries during early implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Data were collected through telephone interviews, using open-ended questions, with 72 public library employees between November 2013 and February 2014. The article is not a comprehensive or statistical study; rather, it demonstrates different ways that librarians were or were not helping people find out about ACA health-care coverage options in large and small libraries across the United States. The research found that library involvement was related to perceived community need and to activities of other groups in the city. Anomalies and various problems suggested during the interviews point to areas for future research.