September 23 marked a new day in the history of health care. The healthcare reform, officially known as the Affordable Care Act, that President Obama signed this past March really started gaining momentum this past Thursday.
To celebrate this exciting event, a few representatives from an organization called WISPIRG hosted a small news conference outside of the MATC Student Center, at 10:00am on Sept 23.
“WISPIRG is a nonpartisan, student directed, public interest advocacy organization. We’ll be at MATC working with the Student Senate to register and turn out students to vote, and after the election we plan to run campaigns to fight hunger and homelessness, outrageous textbook prices, and other issues that matter to students,” states Liz Ziner, WISPIRG Campus Organizer.WISPIRG is part of the Federation of State PIRGS who work on the local, state and national level to stand up to special interests and protect the public. Also at the conference were Shannon Nelson, Program Associate of WISPIRG, Sandy Pasch, Wisconsin State Assembly Representative, and Claudia Jankowski, a student at MATC who spoke a few words about how this program is going benefited her.
Everyone has been talking about the healthcare reform, but many don’t know the specific details of what it’s about. Several laws are now in effect that everyone should know, as there are good chances that at least one will affect them directly.
?Young people can stay on their parent’s healthcare plans until the age of 26, or get back on it if they have been off of it for a while. This will actually officially start at the next open enrollment period for the health insurance company. This time can be different for each company, but starting today each company must comply with this rule during their next enrollment period.
?Pre-existing conditions for children, under the age of 19, are banned.
What this means is that anyone under the age of 19 has to be provided with health insurance and they cannot be denied for pre-existing conditions. In 2014, this will be improved upon to allow anyone, no matter what the age, to be allowed health coverage without being denied for pre-existing conditions.
?Starting on all new health insurance plans, preventive care will be provided free of co-pays or deductibles.
Basically, flu shots, mammograms, physicals, etc. will all be provided without any “out of pocket” costs. This will not be the case for any existing plans, but those health insurance companies will not be allowed to provide less for preventive care. They will have to maintain the same level of premium and preventive care that they already pay.
?Your insurance company can no longer drop you from the plan, if they find an error in your paperwork.
Before this if a company found out that you accidentally forgot to report something, like a case of acne in your teens, they could then drop you even if you’re in your 50’s and have cancer. So small mistakes on paperwork are no longer grounds for termination.
?If your insurance company tries to up your rates or terminate you for no reason, you have the right to an appeals process.
This is pretty explanatory. There is a ban on unreasonably rate heights, although the exact definition of “unreasonable” is still being determined, you can still appeal if you feel the company’s reason is incorrect.
?You have a right to a rebate if your company spends less than 80% of your premium on care.
Many people may not know this, but before this reform an insurance company would spend massive amounts of money on overhead (administration, executive’s pay, etc.). But now the company must use 80%, of all the money they spend, on provided care. If they don’t then the client has the right to a rebate.
?You have the right to choose your own primary care doctor.
This is also self-explanatory. It can also include obstetricians/gynecologists or pediatricians.
?You have the right to emergency care, wherever and whenever you need it, without out-of-network costs.
If you’re out of state and have an emergency, an insurance company could have charged you large out-of-network costs for coverage. Now they can’t and you can get emergency care without any high fees.
?You have the right to information about the cost of insurance and the quality of its benefits.
This has to do with a new website that has gone into effect recently (http://www.healthcare.gov/).?It’s designed to bring about transparency and access to health insurance, so you can see what’s in the plans and the costs then make a decision on the plan that is right for you.
?There are no longer allowed to be lifetime limits on health coverage.
Used to be a company could claim you’ve used too much insurance in your life and could deny to pay for anymore, whether you’re still sick or not.
?Companies have had their annual limits to coverage seriously restricted.
This goes hand-in-hand with the law above. Before a company could also deny you for using too much insurance in a year. Now the “cap” that a company has to use has been raised, so they have more to spend and thus cannot deny you coverage as easily. This is another law that will improve in 2014, and annual limits will then also be banned.
Everyone who attended the conference was very enthusiastic for the new laws, and hope to spread the word to students, who likely benefit quite a bit from the reform, as well as everyone else in the area and beyond.
“It’s time that we do some reform in healthcare,” stated a very enthusiastic Pasch. She also stated that the opposition of the reform, on the exact same date as the conference, held a rally to get a repeal on the Affordable Care Act. They plan to go state by state to repeal the act within each state.
Pasch and Ziner both commented on how the event today was also important in providing accurate information about the Act and diluting the misinformation that the opposition has been providing about the subject.
For any questions concerning the Affordable Care Act please visit
www.healthcare.gov.