HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM
Health Insurance Reform
The 2,700 page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. This reform of the health care system is enormous and its impact on the lives of American citizens promises to be equally so. Although nineteen states have challenged the Constitutionality of this Act with different hearing dates around the country, it is likely that at least a portion of this Act will take place this year. A date to keep in mind for 2010 is September 23rd. At least seven of the provisions are set to be operational six months after the law’s enactment and therefore soon after this date.
Here is a look at seven provisions that will have the most immediate effect on your life:
1. Cost sharing for preventive care will be eliminated. Instead, all health insurance plans will have to provide first dollar coverage for preventive care services.
2. A $250 rebate will be sent to all Medicare beneficiaries who hit the doughnut hole. The doughnut hole is defined as when your out-of-pocket expenses reach $2,830 in prescription drug coverage and extends until your total drug costs for the year reach $6,440..
3. Young adult up to age 26 will be able to remain on their parents’ health care plan, even including those who are married. The cost of this insurance may be more expensive than for younger children. Consequently, some young adults may be able to find a better deal. If you have to keep your child covered under your policy, compare the cost with buying individual coverage. A healthy young adult may be covered in most states for under $150 per month.
4. If you have a pre-existing condition, you will be eligible for subsidized coverage through a temporary national high-risk pool to be established by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. However, you will have had to have been uninsured for at least six months.
5. Group plans or insurance companies will be prohibited from rescinding your coverage (that is, retroactively cancelling your coverage when you get sick), except in cases of fraud.
6. Insurance companies will be prohibited from setting lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits and from setting unreasonable annual limits on the dollar value of benefits.
7. And, if you have a small business with 25 or fewer full-time employees, you may be eligible for a tax credit to make employee coverage more affordable. Tax credits of up to 35 per cent of the insurance premium will be available for businesses that chose to offer health coverage.
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Why is health insurance reform a national issue and not a state issue?
Health insurance laws are currently decided by individual states and now with talk of allowing states to opt out what really is the point of this being decided by the federal government?
My state has a public option for low income individuals and families so why don’t democrats just push their own state to reform health insurance?
it should be a state or local issue after all the feds can’t even run the post office! They have massive fraud under medicare so why do they want to try their hand at still another health care system when they cant handle it now! God Bless
Fighting for Health Insurance Reform
Health Insurance Reform
One of the near-immediate benefits set to take place as a result of healthcare reform is the creation of new high-risk health insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions. The pools are intended as a stopgap measure until 2014, when insurance companies will be completely banned from denying coverage to people based on their health status.
The high-risk pools have been somewhat controversial. For one thing, they require a person to be uninsured for at least six months in order to be eligible. What’s more, many consider it to be superfluous.
The majority of states already have such pools, but they tend to be extremely expensive. The current state pools are relatively small, so costs aren’t spread among a larger population. As costs increase further, only the most desperate and unhealthy individuals remain signed up.
The federal plans are likely to be cheaper, largely due to more stringent regulations. Compared to typical high-risk pools–where premiums can cost 200 percent or more over the average–the new ones are expected to have similar rates to standard plans.
Each state was recently forced to decide whether they would establish their own new affordable health insurance pool according to the guidelines, or cede that responsibility to the national government. 27 states have decided to take the former route. They must rush to have the programs up and running by the end of this summer.
Fifteen other states, however, have refused to do so for a variety of reasons. In the case of Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist claims that the state’s budget struggles prevent it from launching its own program. It will instead lend its support to the federal high-risk health insurance pool. Georgia is worried that the pool will turn into an unfunded mandate, after the subsidies expire three years from now. Some others are opposed to the health insurance reform legislation entirely, and refuse to get involved.
$5 billion in subsidies will be split among the states, regardless of which strategy they have chosen to use. The subsidies are meant to help lower the cost of individual health insurance for this group.
Although the deadline for sending their decision to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was May 1st, eight other states have not yet responded.
Yamileth Medina is an up-and-coming expert on individual health insurance industry. She strives to provide balanced facts about health care reform and other issues in an easily understood manner. Yamileth lives in Miami, Florida.
Why is health insurance reform a national issue and not a state issue?
Health insurance laws are currently decided by individual states and now with talk of allowing states to opt out what really is the point of this being decided by the federal government?
My state has a public option for low income individuals and families so why don’t democrats just push their own state to reform health insurance?
it should be a state or local issue after all the feds can’t even run the post office! They have massive fraud under medicare so why do they want to try their hand at still another health care system when they cant handle it now! God Bless
Health Insurance Reform
What specifics in the various health insurance reform bills would improve life expectancy in the US?
People cite lower life expectancy in the US as a reason we need reform, and I’m interested in how we can improve it though government action.
Please be specific, as in X is a reason life expectancy in the US is lower than somewhere else, and the bills contain provision Y that would help improve it.
With this health care bill life expectancy will go down. A component of this legislation would fund abortion at taxpayer expense. Cannot go down much further than that. Here are other parts of the actual health care bill.
Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.
Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED
Page 42 of HC Bill: The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC benefits for you. You have no choice!
Page 50 Section 152 in HC bill: HC will be provided to ALL non-US citizens, illegal or otherwise.
Page 59 HC Bill lines 21-24: Govt will have direct access to your bank accounts for elective funds transfer.
Page 84 Sec 203 HC bill: Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the ‘Exchange.’
Page 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill: Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)
Page 354 Sec 1177: The Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of ’special needs people!’
Page 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3: The Govt provides an “approved” list of end-of-life resources; guiding you in death. (Also called ‘assisted suicide.’)
Page 427 Lines 15-24: The Govt mandates a program for orders on “end-of-life.” (The Govt has a say in how your life ends!)
Page 429 Lines 10-12: An “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. (AN ORDER TO DIE FROM THE GOVERNMENT?!?)
I hope this shows you obamabots that you actually need to read the bill before you start getting all giddy over it.
I personally am an unemployed Christian and cannot afford health insurance nor would I want my money to goes towards the killing of babies so I on religious and financial grounds will not be getting any health insurance nor will I pay any fines. If enough people do this it matters not what obamanation says.
Mark Twain once wrote, “In a Republic, who is ‘The Country?’ Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who then is ‘The Country?’ Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; They have not command, they have only their little share in the command. In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic, it is the common voice of the people,. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of polititians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country. Let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—no you move.”
Health reform includes tax credits for small businesses
Federal legislation aimed at reforming the nation’s health care went into effect in March. One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act is the availability of tax credits for small businesses.
Fighting for Health Insurance Reform
