The Affordable Care Act Celebrates its 1st Birthday

Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act being signed by President Barack Obama. Many organizations across the country have taken the occasion to spotlight the law. In Colorado, a doughnut hole bake sale highlights the assistance Medicare recipients receive in purchasing prescription drugs, and in Missouri, members of Congress that voted for the bill are being sent thank-you cakes.

Families USA marked the occasion by producing a fact sheet which summarizes how millions of Americans have already received benefits from the Affordable Care Act. Their list includes:

• 3.4 million young adults under 26 years old that are now eligible to stay on their parents health care plan
• 3.6 million elderly Americans that received a rebate check to compensate for the out of pocket prescription drug costs under Medicare
• 46 million Medicare beneficiaries who now have access to free preventive health services
• 5 million children with pre-existing conditions who can know longer be denied coverage from health insurance companies
• 4 million small businesses that are now eligible for tax credits to help them offer health coverage to their employees

Their report did not include the 61,000 early retirees who enjoyed lower premiums and continued coverage, due to subsidies to their insurance plans in 2010.

ABC News lists some of the other rules that have already gone into effect under health reform. New medical loss ratios the will be enforced for insurance companies, which means that if your insurance company doesnt spend a required percentage of your premium (80% for most plans) on medical care for their customers, they will be required to write you a check to make up the difference. This will limit the portion of your premium insurance companies can spend on advertising and executive compensation.

High risk pools, a proposal popular with many Republicans in Congress, have also been created to provide subsidized coverage to uninsured people with costly medical conditions. These pools will expire in 2014 when subsidies will become available for everyone to purchase comprehensive care on new regulated health insurance exchanges.

Between now and 2014 new benefits and insurance regulations will gradually be implemented. By 2013 insurance companies will no longer be able to cap annual benefits at less than $2 million and high income earners (making more than $250,000 a year) will begin paying more into Medicare to keep that program strong. In 2014 new health insurance exchanges will be operational in every state along with:

• Subsidizes and caps on premiums to guarantee that coverage is affordable
• Guaranteed coverage of essential benefits (such as preventive care and prescription drugs) to make sure that coverage is comprehensive
• The end of annual and lifetime limits on coverage, which means that you can be secure that your insurance will protect you from going bankrupt due to a catastrophic illness
• And, most importantly, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage due to a pre-existing condition meaning that those who need health care the most will be able to get insurance coverage

Check out the presentation here for more info on the upcoming provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

For all of these reasons CWA joins other organizations around the county in celebrating the historic passage of universal health care in the United States and says thank you to all the member of Congress that voted for this bill and to the Obama Administration for signing it into law.

-- New York Times / NPR / The Hill / Families USA / CWA News / ABC News / Slate / Health Affairs / HealthReform.gov / CWA News