Learn About The Affordable Care Act

KD Kneeburg had her Letter to the Editor published this week in both the Casper Star Tribune and the Platte County Record Times. Read it here: Learn about health reform. If you visit the healthcare.gov page as suggested you will find some of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act already in place, including:

Providing Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credits: Up to 4 million small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help them provide insurance benefits to their workers. The first phase of this provision provides a credit worth up to 35% of the employer’s contribution to the employees’ health insurance. Small non-profit organizations may receive up to a 25% credit.

Cracking Down on Health Care Fraud: Current efforts to fight fraud have returned more than $2.5 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund in FY 2009 alone. The new law invests new resources and requires new screening procedures for health care providers to boost these efforts and reduce fraud and waste in Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.

Expanding Coverage for Early Retirees: Too often, Americans who retire without employer-sponsored insurance and before they are eligible for Medicare see their life savings disappear because of high rates in the individual market. To preserve employer coverage for early retirees until more affordable coverage is available through the new Exchanges by 2014, the new law creates a $5 billion program to provide needed financial help for employment-based plans to continue to provide valuable coverage to people who retire between the ages of 55 and 65, as well as their spouses and dependents.

For more information on the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, visit www.ERRP.gov

Providing Access to Insurance for Uninsured Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions: A Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) will provide new coverage options to individuals who have been uninsured for at least six months because of a pre-existing condition. States have the option of running this new program in their state. If a state chooses not to do so, a plan will be established by the Department of Health and Human Services in that state. This program serves as a bridge to 2014, when all discrimination against pre-existing conditions will be prohibited.

Learn more about the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan

Extending Coverage for Young Adults:Under the new law, young adults will be allowed to stay on their parent’s plan until they turn 26 years old. (In the case of existing group health plans, this right does not apply if the young adult is offered insurance at work.) Some insurers began implementing this practice early. Check with your insurance company or employer to see if you qualify.

Providing Free Preventive Care: All new plans must cover certain preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance.

Eliminating Lifetime Limits on Insurance Coverage: Under the new law, insurance companies will be prohibited from imposing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays.

These are but a few of the positive changes made to assist people in keeping the cost of insurance under control and to help people achieve healthier lives.