Day 5: Today's Important Thing to know about Health Care Reform

One of the important things that the Affordable Care Act legislated was standardized benefits.  All policies sold going forward will have to include these benefits in order for them to be creditable. The standardized benefits are:

               Ambulatory patient services

               Emergency Services
               Maternity & newborn care
               Pediatric services including dental & vision
               Rehabilitative/habilitative services & devices
               Mental health & substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
               Preventive & wellness services & chronic disease management
               Hospitalization
               Prescription Drugs
               Laboratory Services

You will notice that these standardized benefits include maternity, newborn care and pediatric services.  That means EVERYONE gets maternity benefits whether you are a 28 year old man or a 60 year old woman.  Of course, the premiums will also reflect that coverage.  One benefit of standardized benefits is that it makes it extremely easy to compare policies from different insurance carriers.  Now, you know today’s important thing about health care reform – standardized benefits.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s important thing to know – the federally facilitated marketplace.