The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the name for the comprehensive health care reform law and its amendments which addresses health insurance coverage, health care costs, and preventive care. The law was enacted in two parts: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama and was amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act on March 30, 2010.
The visualizations depicts health insurance coverage data for each state and the United States as a whole, including variables such as the uninsured rates before and after Obamacare, estimates of individuals covered by employer and marketplace healthcare plans, and enrollment in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The data set comes from kaggle.
The health insurance coverage data was compiled from the US Department of Health and Human Services and US Census Bureau.
Some of the variables in the data set are:
Uninsured_Rate_2010 - The uninsured rate in 2010 (measured by percentage)
Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015 - The uninsured rate change from 2010 - 2015 (measured by percentage)
Avg_Mo_Tx_Credit - The average monthly tax credits (Dollars)
colnames(aca) <- c("State",
"Uninsured_Rate_2010",
"Uninsured_Rate_2015",
"Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015",
"Health_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015",
"Empl_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015",
"Mktpl_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015",
"Mktpl_Tx_Credits",
"Avg_Mo_Tx_Credit",
"State_Medicaid_Exp",
"Medicaid_Enroll_2013",
"Medicaid_Enroll_2016",
"Medicaid_Enroll_Ch_2013_2016",
"Medicare_Enroll_2016")
# convert character percentage rates to numeric
aca$Uninsured_Rate_2010 <- as.numeric(sub("%", "", aca$Uninsured_Rate_2010))/100
aca$Uninsured_Rate_2015 <- as.numeric(sub("%", "", aca$Uninsured_Rate_2015))/100
aca$Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015 <- as.numeric(sub("%", "", aca$Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015))/100
# convert $ to numeric
aca$Avg_Mo_Tx_Credit <- as.numeric(gsub("[^0-9]", "", aca$Avg_Mo_Tx_Credit))
# convert state to a factor
aca$State <- as.factor(aca$State)
# the value for the US in Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015 is incorrect. we'll fix it
aca$Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015 <- aca$Uninsured_Rate_2015 - aca$Uninsured_Rate_2010
# create a data frame with just the US summary info and a set with just the states
aca_state <- aca[!aca$State == "United States", ]
aca_us <- aca[aca$State == "United States", ]
# drop unused factor levels
aca_state$State <- factor(aca_state$State)
aca_us$State <- factor(aca_us$State)Let’s run some basic functions to understand the structure and schema of the data set.
summary(aca_us)## State Uninsured_Rate_2010 Uninsured_Rate_2015
## United States:1 Min. :0.155 Min. :0.094
## 1st Qu.:0.155 1st Qu.:0.094
## Median :0.155 Median :0.094
## Mean :0.155 Mean :0.094
## 3rd Qu.:0.155 3rd Qu.:0.094
## Max. :0.155 Max. :0.094
## Uninsured_Rate_Ch_2010_2015 Health_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015
## Min. :-0.061 Min. :19304000
## 1st Qu.:-0.061 1st Qu.:19304000
## Median :-0.061 Median :19304000
## Mean :-0.061 Mean :19304000
## 3rd Qu.:-0.061 3rd Qu.:19304000
## Max. :-0.061 Max. :19304000
## Empl_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015 Mktpl_Ins_Cov_Ch_2010_2015 Mktpl_Tx_Credits
## Min. :172292000 Min. :11081330 Min. :9389609
## 1st Qu.:172292000 1st Qu.:11081330 1st Qu.:9389609
## Median :172292000 Median :11081330 Median :9389609
## Mean :172292000 Mean :11081330 Mean :9389609
## 3rd Qu.:172292000 3rd Qu.:11081330 3rd Qu.:9389609
## Max. :172292000 Max. :11081330 Max. :9389609
## Avg_Mo_Tx_Credit State_Medicaid_Exp Medicaid_Enroll_2013
## Min. :291 Length:1 Min. :56392477
## 1st Qu.:291 Class :character 1st Qu.:56392477
## Median :291 Mode :character Median :56392477
## Mean :291 Mean :56392477
## 3rd Qu.:291 3rd Qu.:56392477
## Max. :291 Max. :56392477
## Medicaid_Enroll_2016 Medicaid_Enroll_Ch_2013_2016 Medicare_Enroll_2016
## Min. :73532931 Min. :16106157 Min. :57149984
## 1st Qu.:73532931 1st Qu.:16106157 1st Qu.:57149984
## Median :73532931 Median :16106157 Median :57149984
## Mean :73532931 Mean :16106157 Mean :57149984
## 3rd Qu.:73532931 3rd Qu.:16106157 3rd Qu.:57149984
## Max. :73532931 Max. :16106157 Max. :57149984Our summary shows the Unites States as whole had an uninsured rate of 15.5% in 2010 and an uninsured rate of 9.4% in 2015 which means the unisured rate dropped by 6.1% in that period. Medicaid enrollment in 2013 was 56,392,477 and in 2016 the number jumped to 73,532,931. There was a net increase of 16,106,157 enrollments from 2013-2016. Medicare enrollment in 2016 stood at 57,149,984.
Our first visualization shows that citizens of Massachusetts and Maine had the most uninsured rate drop to around 1% while citizens of Oregon and Nevada had a drop in uninsured rate to around 10 percent from 2010-2015
## [1] 2
The state of California had the biggest Medicaid enrollment change from 2013-2016 while the states of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Wyoming had the least Medicaid enrollment change and that’s because those states did not implement the Medicaid Expansion program.
The state of California had the biggest Health insurance change from 2013-2015 while the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota had the least insurance change in the same period
The state of Alaska had the highest average monthly tax credit at around 750$ while the state of New York had the least at around 180$.