Day 13: Today's Important Thing to know about Health Care Reform

Today’s thing to know is about grandfathered plans.  By now, most of you should know whether your health insurance coverage through you employer is going to continue into 2014 and what it will cover.  Plans offered by your employer are considered creditable plans but may not cover the ten standardized categories mandated by the Affordable Care Act.  The reason they don’t have to cover those items is because they are grandfathered plans or plans that were in place when the law was enacted in March of 2010.  As long as the plan is not changed, it may remain as it is.  The only thing that can change is the premium.  Now, you may also be a person who has purchased their own private health insurance.  If you haven’t already, you will be receiving from your insurance carrier a letter outlining your options to continue or change your coverage for 2014.  If you need help decide what your best option may be, contact me.

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.

Day 4: Today's Important Thing to Know about Health Care Reform

 

Yesterday I mentioned “creditable” health insurance.  Today’s important thing to know is that there is no such thing as “Obamacare.”  The Affordable Care Act is a law that requires health insurance companies to comply with certain requirements in order to offer to you creditable health insurance.  These policies are offered through private insurance companies not the federal government.  The Affordable Care Act is a law not a program like Medicare.  New ACA compliant or creditable policies will offer a standardized set of benefits.  In order to make these benefit rich policies affordable, low income individuals and families will receive a tax subsidy from the federal government.  Tomorrow we will look at what the standardized benefits are.