888-765-5400Health Care Reform in Plain English
The term “health care reform” is being used a lot these days. Health care reform became a reality with the passage of two related bills:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into law on March 23, 2010 and The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, signed into law a week later on March 30, 2010. Because these two bills work together, we often refer to health care reform as a single “new law” for the sake of simplicity. Health care reform law has many separate provisions that will come into effect at different times over the next eight years. Here are some of the most important ones:
Individual Mandate. This law requires most Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 – or pay a penalty for not buying it.
Subsidies To Make Insurance More Affordable. The government will offer payments to help offset the cost of insurance for some people and tax credits to some small businesses to help offset health insurance costs.
Expanded Eligibility for Medicaid. This program, which helps people with low incomes pay for medical care, will now accept more people.
New Insurance Rules. No one will be excluded from coverage or have to wait for a pre-existing condition to be covered. Benefit plans will be allowed fewer coverage limitations. Young adults will be able to keep dependent coverage until age 26. There will be even tighter standards for canceling coverage based on the actions of an insured individual (such as fraud).
Exchanges. New state-run “health insurance exchanges” will give individuals and small groups a new way to compare plans and buy insurance from private companies.
Preventive Care. The new law requires health insurance plans to cover 100% of the costs of certain preventive care and health screenings which are intended to help people stay healthy and avoid more serious and costly treatments later in life.
Increased Prescription Assistance. Certain Medicare beneficiaries who buy prescription drugs using Medicare Part D will receive additional money this year and reductions in out-of-pocket cost in future years to help narrow a gap that existed before health care reform: the so-called “doughnut hole.”
These are the most significant and talked-about provisions of health care reform, but the new law contains many other detailed changes to the way health care is developed, delivered and paid for in America.
Read the Law: Make sure you understand ………..
http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act-as-passed.pdf
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h4872enr.txt.pdf
The above information is from a post by BCBSNC in 2010 and located at bcbsnc.com.
For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our qualified agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health. Call us for details.