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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Could Affect Other Lines of Insurance Through Five Main Mechanisms

• Patients might less frequently use liability insurance to obtain treatment for unrelated health problems that health insurance would otherwise treat.
• Liability payments could decrease in states that limit awards based on payments from collateral sources.
• In states that do not limit the collateral source effect, liability claims could increase if health insurance pays at the time the care is provided.
• Medicare rates, which form the basis for many liability payments, are reduced under the new reforms, and those reductions are likely to spill over into private rates.
• Insured individuals have more contacts with physicians, make more visits, and receive more procedures, so they are more likely than others to file medical malpractice claims.

Overall Impacts Are Likely to Be Small in the Short Run

• Other things being equal, the ACA is expected to reduce auto and workers' compensation insurer costs and increase medical professional liability insurer costs by a few percentage points as of 2016.
• These impacts are likely to vary across states.

The ACA Could Have Other, Longer-Term Effects

• Tort law might change because concerns underlying current rules will no longer be valid.
• The ACA could foster new payment models and health care organizational structures.
• Medicaid may increase subrogation against liability awards.
• Wider availability of health insurance could improve preventive care and ultimately lead to greater population health.