Health Care Reform

It’s Disgusting!

The ink isn’t even dry, and Big Insurance shows us why reform is so necessary. The New York Times reported that just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies started trying to weasel out of provisions designed to end their abusive practices. Sick kids are their first target.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

THIS JUST IN:

Insurers Quickly Retreat

Health Care Bill Is Now Law

The final fixes have been signed into the health care reform bill marking the historic first steps in the largest overhaul of the American health care system since the passage of Medicare in 1965. After more than a year of legislative bickering and grueling debates, sweeping changes will now begin to be made to our health care system. Strong opinions continue to be expressed, Republicans have declared that there will be “no cooperation” from them as they work on their strategy to “repeal and replace,” and Big Insurance has already started looking for loopholes (SEE sidebar on the left). So now the real work begins.

The bill will eventually affect just about every American by 2014, but there is a list of reforms that will begin within the next 6 months, including tax credits to 4 million small businesses to cover employees’ insurance; an end to recisions by insurance companies of customers who get sick; an end to caps on coverage; and a provision to allow young adults to remain on their parents’ policies until they are 26 years old.

To help you understand how it will affect or benefit you, stay tuned here to find out how. To begin with, check out below.

THE TOP 10 IMMEDIATE BENEFITS YOU’LL GET

The new health care reform law will immediately:

·	Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

·	Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;

·	Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

·	Lower seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

·	Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

·	Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

·	Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;

·	Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;

·	Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

·	Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

So you’re confused about what health care reform will actually mean for you? Don’t feel like reading the more than 2000-page bill yourself?

We’ll help you sort it all out.

In short, the new law puts us on a path to provide health care coverage for all Americans, empowers consumers over insurance companies and ensures we are moving to reduce health care costs in the long run. Now that the bill has passed the reconciliation process and will now be law, sweeping new policies will be ushered in. Many outlets are trying to tease out what this will mean for the average consumer. We’ve put together some information that will help you to understand it all. We will continue to sift through the many resources that have been providing information about this historic reform so you don’t have to. Check back often for updates.

OTHER RESOURCES:

The New York Times has a great interactive summary.

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Politics Daily gives a “Year-by-Year Rundown of What Happens & When”

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“Republicans Set for Last Ditch Senate Assault on Reform.”

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Investopedia.com lists “10 Ways The New Healthcare Bill May Affect You.”

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CNNMoney.com reports “What health care reform means for your business.”

CLICK HERE