What progress looks like. Key consumer protections under health care reform law go into effect.

[jefferson_dem]

Key consumer-protection provisions of the health-care reform law go into effect this week.

For plan years beginning on or after Thursday:

• Parents will be able to keep their young adult children on their group health plan up to age 26, regardless of whether the adult child lives with the parent, is a full-time student, disabled or married.

• Insurance companies will be banned from dropping coverage when an enrollee gets sick.

• All new plans must offer free preventive services, such as mammograms, colonoscopies and certain child preventive health-care services, meaning plans can't charge deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance.

• All employer plans and new plans in the individual market will be prohibited from denying coverage to children under age 19 with pre-existing conditions.

• Parents will be able to select a pediatrician as the primary care provider for their children.

• Female enrollees will be able to obtain obstetrical/gynecological specialist services without a referral from another primary care provider.

• Group plans will be banned from imposing lifetime benefit limits and will start gradually eliminating annual benefit limits.

• New plans must provide consumers access to an internal and external claims appeals process

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2735042,CST-NWS-Health22.article

[jefferson_dem]

1. 50 States, 50 Stories – New Health Care Website Launches Today

The White House Blog
50 States, 50 Stories – New Health Care Website Launches Today

Posted by Stephanie Cutter on September 22, 2010 at 06:15 AM EDT
Today, President Obama is celebrating the six month anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. To help celebrate, we are unveiling a new website – www.WhiteHouse.gov/HealthReform that provides critical information regarding the Affordable Care Act. The site includes 50 stories from individuals and employers in every state and new state-by-state reports that detail how reform is already strengthening the health care system in your state.

You can listen to audio stories from Americans who are benefitting from the new law and watch this video of Gail O’Brien who received a surprise phone call from President Obama. Gail was previously uninsured and diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Thanks to the new law, Gail now has insurance through the new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that will pay for her treatments, and she is responding very well.

The six month anniversary marks a major milestone for our health care system. The Patient’s Bill of Rights will take effect, putting an end to some of the worst insurance industry abuses.

The Patient’s Bill of Rights:

•Bans discrimination against kids with pre-existing conditions.
•Allows young adults to remain on their parents’ plan until their 26th birthday.
•Prohibits insurance companies from cutting off your coverage when you’re sick if you made a mistake on your application.
•Prohibits insurance companies from putting a lifetime limit on the amount of coverage you may receive, and restricts the use of annual limits until they are banned completely in 2014.
•And if you join a new plan:
◦You have the right to choose your own doctor in your insurer network.
◦Your insurer is banned from charging more for emergency services obtained outside of their network.
◦You will be guaranteed the right to appeal insurance company decisions to an independent third party.
◦You will receive recommended preventive care with no out-of-pocket cost. Services like mammograms, colonoscopies, immunizations, pre-natal and new baby care will be covered, and insurance companies will be prohibited from charging deductibles, co-payments or co-insurance.
◦
The enactment of the Patient’s Bill of Rights comes during a week when we’ve already received good news about the Affordable Care Act and our health insurance premiums. On Monday, Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 215,000 customers will receive refunds totaling $155.8 million. Tuesday brought more good news when the Department of Health and Human Services announced that, on average, premiums for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage would go down, while enrollment in the program is expected to increase. You can learn more about how the new law is strengthening our health care system in your state by visiting the new site today. Or visit HealthCare.gov to learn about all of the coverage options in your community based on your unique needs and circumstances.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/22/50-states-50-stories-new-health-care-website-launches-today

[impik]

2. Amen to that.

Stay home in November, Dems...

[vaberella]

3. I don't even know when this passed. This was under Obama?! n/t

:sarcasm:

[customerserviceguy]

4. We have yet to see how the ins. co's are going to figure out how

to weasel out of this, just like they did with child-only policies. The only true reform would have laid plans to slay the beast, rather than just try to live amicably with it.

[eridani]

5. Not a single one of which has so far stopped the insurance parasites--

--from royally fucking their customers over with rate increases.

[iamjoy]

6. While Making Multi-Million Dollar Salaries

I might add. Yet somehow people are mad at those "lazy" poor people taking advantage of the system.

One of my friends posted to FB a letter from a doctor about a Medicaid patient who smoked, ate fast food, had tattoos, etc and how that was the problem with healthcare, we needed to reform attitudes. I responded that while there are people who milk the system, there are also people who just make bad decisions (having never been equipped otherwise) Finally, any one of us could end up in the position of needing public assistance - it only takes getting sick meaning you lose your job and thus, your insurance.

If I see it again, I will post something about how the real problem with healthcare in this country is indeed a sense of entitlement - CEOs of insurance companies and hospitals who feel they deserve to make millions of dollars a year while the average cost of a family insurance policy is equal to 25% of the average family income.

Oh, and since Medicare is funded by taxpayer dollars, the money of working Americans is going into the pockets of these multi-millionaires.

[txlibdem]

9. No way. Our Democratic President wouldn't do that to us.

We elected our President because he said the days of corporate abuses are over and he promised CHANGE. A Democratic President would never, never have put into law an insurance mandate without strict controls on cost. Right?
:sarcasm:

Oh, well. Maybe we can get Howard Dean nominated in 2012.

[canoeist52]

7. Free preventive services for NEWLY CREATED PLANS ONLY

Because people will make health appointments with their current plans expecting them to be free -FYI

# This preventive services provision applies to people enrolled in job-related health plans or individual health insurance policies created after March 23, 2010. If you are in such a health plan, this provision will affect you as soon as your plan begins its first new “plan year” or “policy year” on or after September 23, 2010.

# If your plan is “grandfathered,” these benefits may not be available to you.

# If your health plan uses a network of providers, be aware that health plans are only required to provide these preventive services through an in-network provider. Your health plan may allow you to receive these services from an out-of-network provider, but may charge you a fee.

# Your doctor may provide a preventive service, such as a cholesterol screening test, as part of an office visit. Be aware that your plan can require you to pay some costs of the office visit, if the preventive service is not the primary purpose of the visit, or if your doctor bills you for the preventive services separately from the office visit.

# If you have questions about whether these new provisions apply to your plan, contact your insurer or plan administrator. If you still have questions, contact your State insurance department.

# To know which covered preventive services are right for you—based on your age, gender, and health status—ask your health care provide

[Recursion]

8. New plans are generally created every year

Since open season is about to start, pretty much everybody is about to get a "new policy". This is why so many changes happen in various septembers.