The Affordable Care Act, which is infusing millions of new paying customers into the economy who previously couldn’t afford medical care services, continues to boost jobs growth as the health industry emphasizes outpatient care and value-based medicine.

The health care industry added 22,000 jobs last month, which was about on par with February totals for health services jobs, according to the jobs report issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In the past year alone, 363,000 jobs have been added in the health sector. The entire U.S. economy added 126,000 jobs in March though such totals ended a string of 12 consecutive months when 200,000 jobs or more were added to employment rolls.

The growth in health care continues to come in the ambulatory care sector which is key to the shift away from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care models that emphasize outreach to patients, encouraging them to take their medications and see a primary care provider, typically in a less costly outpatient care setting.

People who bought coverage through ObamaCare are generally more satisfied than those with other types of insurance, according to a new national survey.

ObamaCare customers rated their satisfaction over the last year as 696 out of 1,000, compared to the 679-point rating by customers with employer-based plans, according to a large survey by the consumer research firm J.D. Power.
Customer satisfaction has increased sharply from ObamaCare’s tumultuous first year.

New enrollees rated their experience at 670 — a significant 55 points higher than the previous year, when ObamaCare exchanges were plagued by website failures.

People were more likely to be satisfied by ObamaCare if they had already enrolled in coverage. They gave even higher marks if they had auto-enrolled in their plans this year, with a rating of 744 out of 1,000.

The J.D. Power study, which surveyed more than 3,000 healthcare customers, offers the first comprehensive look at the Department of Health and Human Services's (HHS) efforts to improve the customer experience in ObamaCare’s second year.