Recently, President Obama and the U.S. government passed a Health Care Reform Bill that is likely to see the greatest reform in the health care system since 1965 when Medicare was first introduced. These changes will affect in some way or another every U.S. citizen. Some people will benefit greatly from the mandatory changes. Others will find themselves paying higher taxes and premiums, depending on their income levels. The changes are to come into effect gradually over the next four to 10 years with some changes being implemented immediately. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most significant changes in the Health Care Reform Bill.
Health Care for Uninsured Persons with Preexisting Conditions
Perhaps one of the most significant changes is that by 2014, health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage on the basis of preexisting medical conditions. To fill the gap while this is being instituted, people with preexisting conditions will in the interim be given access to health care through a temporary high-risk pool. This change is to start nine months from the enactment of the bill.
Health Cover for Children with Preexisting Conditions
Like adults, children with preexisting medical conditions are also no longer denied coverage. This is one of the first changes to be implemented in the health care reform policy and will come into effect six months after the final enactment.
Free Preventative Screenings for Medicare
Up until this point in time, Medicare policy holders had to pay co-payments for medical consultations, including preventative screenings and check-ups. From January 2011, there will no longer be any co-payments on preventative care. All preventative screening tests and consultations will be covered in full by Medicare. In addition, preventative services will be exempt from deductibles.
No More Insurance Rescission
This reform is to provide great benefit to people who faithfully pay insurance premiums over the years and who may require extensive medical treatment later in life. Previously insurance companies had a habit of rescinding the policy a few months after a person became ill, leaving them without medical coverage when they needed it most. Coming into effect six months after the enactment of the bill, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to cancel policies on this basis.
Reforming the Medicare Part-D Donut Hole
Many Medicare beneficiaries who have regular prescriptions are affected by the “donut hole.” This essentially means that there is a gap in the payment policy which needs to be filled by the patient in order for them to get their medication. This benefit sees people receiving a $250 rebate immediately for affected policy holders. Starting from 2011 the bill implements a 50 percent discount on brand name medication for seniors who find themselves in the donut hole. The aim is that by 2020, the donut hole will be completely eliminated. Assistance for Early Retirees
Owing to the recession, many companies offered more elderly employees early retirement. The bill helps to create immediate relief for businesses by offering a temporary re-insurance program to help them offset the costs of health care benefits of retirees between the ages of 55 and 64 years of age. The change comes into effect 90 days after the enactment of the bill and is due to end once the State Health Insurance Exchanges become available.
The End of Lifetime Coverage Limits
Previously, health insurance companies were allowed to implement lifetime coverage limits. This meant that coverage could be cancelled if the policy holder exceeded their expected lifespan. Coming into effect six months after the final enactment of the bill, health care insurance policies will no longer be able to implement lifetime coverage limits.
Tax Credits for Small Businesses
Starting in 2010, small businesses who offer employees health care insurance benefits will receive tax credits up to 35 percent of the cost of the premium payments. This is provided as an incentive for more small businesses to have their employees on a health plan. From 2014, the tax credit will increase to 50 percent of the insurance premiums paid when health care becomes mandatory.
Greater Accountability from Health Insurance Companies
Starting from January 2011, health insurance companies will be required to prove that they are spending at least 80 percent of policy holders’ insurance premiums on actual health care medical expenses. This is to ensure that policy holders are being looked after and that the premiums are not being used for marketing campaigns or executives’ salaries. Larger companies will have to account for 85 percent of their spending. Any health insurance companies not meeting this requirement will be required to rebate their policy holders. Extended Coverage for Young Adults
This provides relief for young adults up to the age of 26 years. They will now be allowed to stay on their parents’ policies until that age and receive medical benefits. This is subject to the parents agreeing to this option.
More Health Care Centers and Staff
The bill has assigned funding to increase the number of community health care centers and to train up much needed medical staff. Specific programs to fund the training doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are to be implemented.
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Independent insurance agents that serve senior citizens across the country were met with the news today that the Sentinel Life Medicare supplement is now paying a significantly higher commission rate. Many agents were notified of the news by Precision Senior Marketing (PSM), a leading Medicare Supplement FMO and leader in the industry.
Lucas Vandenberg, CEO of PSM said “As an exclusive distributor of Sentinel Life’s new Medicare supplement product, we are committed to extolling the benefits of the product, such as its high paying commission level and competitive premiums for seniors. I’m confident this combination will greatly appeal to senior market insurance agents throughout the country.”
Since 1954 Sentinel Life Insurance Company has provided quality insurance protection and world class customer service to both agents and consumers alike. For 2010, Sentinel Life Medigap modernized plans are now available in 16 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The Sentinel Plans Medicare Supplement insurance product line will provide standard plans A,B,C,D & F and Select plans C, D, & F, according to Sentinel Life’s website.
Of course, many insurance agents were excited about the news, such as PSM agent Annabelle Castillo who said, “With 40+ million seniors today and 8,000+ baby boomers joining every day, it’s no wonder why Sentinel Life is aggressively adapting its business strategy to attract more agents.”
With its exclusive distribution contract with Sentinel Life, PSM is now offering top-level, direct contracts for the Sentinel Life Med Supp. Interested insurance agents can contract to sell this product in as little as five minutes with PSM’s electronic licensing system.
Precision Senior Marketing, LLC, located in Austin, Texas, is a full-service, national insurance marketing organization dedicated to supporting, recruiting, and servicing, the best senior market insurance agents in the United States.
Learn more about the Sentinel Life Med Supp. Stop by Alex Stone’s medicare supplement FMO site for more info.
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As of late, there have been a lot of heated discussions and talk about who the health care reform will help, and how it will effect Americans. Although many are opposed to this health care reform, the true is that this plan will help many Americans who are currently trying to survive each day without any health care coverage.
First off, the plan will assist those in low income households who are unable to afford health coverage for themselves or their families. These are not those individuals that the government is currently helping, they are the group of Americans that are parents of the low income children that Medicaid covers and pregnant women.
The next group that will be covered by this plan are high school and college graduated that are no longer covered under their parents medical insurance anymore. These individuals are left just out of school with high student loans to play, and therefore not enough funds to pay for medical coverage. Under the new health plan, these Americans will be allowed to remain under the coverage of their parents until they are 26 years of age. This will give them sufficient time to find a job and get their fiances in order before they are required to find medical coverage for themselves.
Third, those with health troubles will be assisted under the new plan as they will not be forced to exist without an insurance policy simply because they have been diagnosed with a severe disease or sickness. While this won’t actually take effect till the year 2014, those who have been refused health insurance because of their sicknesses bear a fresh hope.
While this plan has a lot of faults as well as benefits it is important to look at who will be helped by such a health care plan. Just because some of us are lucky enough to have health insurance coverage it is important to remember that it is very easy to become one of those with a serious health issue or loss of employment that could leave anyone of us struggling to find health insurance coverage.
Finding health insurance that is suitable for your medical needs can be tough. The best thing to do is obtain numerous health insurance quotes from various companies. For assistance go to www.gohealthinsurance.com.
Is the health insurance reform bill now supposed to be in it’s final composition is going to be derailed because of the Democrats lose the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy?
This is going to be very interesting as things are beginning to unravel for the Rock Star President! Most of the democrats are blaming Mr. Obama for the Dems losing that valuable seat and traditional Senate Seat.
But does it really tip the balance on how the health care reform bill will be pass or not? My personal view on this is that it is going to be difficult for the Republicans to derail the inevitable passing of the bill. Only time will tell!
The other question is the what is going to happen to the public health insurance option? Public health care is very much needed and they need to have that incorporated into the bill regardless or it is run by the government or not.
But with the democrats losing more seats to the Republicans, it will obviously become harder for the President to get his programs and plans to get favorable treatment from congress.
What they need with the health care reform bill is by-partisan passing so that it will have support from the people and will eventually become a more popular and accepted health care and one that really works for every American.
There are so many things that can happen and if they are going to happen, the Health Care reform Bill may stall. The reason for this is the special elections that are about to happen. These two seats in the senate can give the Republicans to to do some damage or may stall the final passing of the bill especially with a lot of people being unhappy with the government of Mr. Obama tilting to what they felt is Socialism.
There are two seats to that needs to be filled and the seat of the late Ted Kennedy which was suppose to be a no problem for the Democrats is not a big problem for them if they can their candidate to win. About two weeks ago the white house according to news suggest that they are in control but now they have doubts if they still win it.
This will be huge loss for the Dems if they cannot win the two seats as this are crucial to the passing of the health care reform bill.
And how about the public health insurance option? Is there any talk about it? I think it is almost dead but my guess is that somehow they will make it available to the more needy people.
I hope they will include a part of the bill where all Americans can have health insurance even at least a basic one. It would be great to have a more comparable health insurance to Canada and Australia.
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There is a big rap going around on how the health care reform bill is being discuss on it’s final merging. The Obama government transparency is completely thrown off the window and the Public health insurance option which this writer really supports is now almost a foregone conclusion. Why? There are so many Americans who do not have their own health insurance and they are are not expected to get as much coverage in the present form of the bill.
Who benefits from all of these supposed health reforms?
Is this for the big people of the health industry and the pharmaceutical companies lobbying feverishly to avoid the Public Health Insurance Option?
Shall we all get private health insurance? Too bad!
This is a shame as All Americans should have health coverage just like the citizens of Canada of some other industrialized countries in the world.
How can America proudly say the world Leader and but cannot provide health insurance for 47 million of its own people?
This is not a good impression from anyone and people in the third world can think that they have their counterparts in the US…..What A Shame!!!
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What happened to Mr. Obama’s promise of government transparency and open government!? The health care reform bill is now being discuss and has to be merge but everything is being done in closed doors. Wow! What a year makes. Last year he vow that he the President of the US will be transparent and he promised this too during his campaign. Was those promise an empty lie? Were they deliberately done to win the elections as many people are clamoring for Government Openness? I hope not.
But is very evident these days that we are not hearing the real story and what is going on with the public health insurance option and the whole of the bill regarding health care reform. So does anyone except from the few congressmen and senators involved know anything on who gets what?
It’s funny how this bill is manipulated by the very people whom the people put to the legislature to voice their rights and privileges and now being sold. Remember that vote buying in the senate so the bill will pass? Giving those perks to senators Nelson and few of those asking for a huge chunk of money for their vote?
It is a shame that Obama always said “Not In My Watch”!!!…. Not in his watch that things are being done behind closed doors??? Not in his watch that the health care reform will be done in secrecy? What happened to the promise, Mr. Obama?
Putting in perspective what this is all about is not hard. With the public health insurance option being proposed the the liberal democrats now being shoved to nowhere land, they are the only stumbling block to passing this health care reform. So they can easily get this done through closed doors so that no one really knows what is going on and they simply ship this back to the Senate for final approval.
So what will this new and merge health care reform will look like? Nobody knows until one or two or the Powers that be will come out in open and say” Everything is Done!”
So all we need to do is wait and see and feel for ourselves what they want to let us know and follow. Is that how democracy works? Well, after all this I am not a politician neither the Powerful, just your ordinary man.
How about private health care system? Does this mean that the private sector who are offering this health insurance or health care right now are going to suffer?
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There is so much vote buying going around the Senate just to pass or to get a few of their colleagues to be in favor of the Health Care Reform Bill. Yes! it did pass by 60 to 40 votes and there is a reason to celebrate because this has never been done by the past 6 US presidents. But vote buying? This is appalling to me. There has always been the backroom deals but never heard of anything in this magnitude or proportions. Giving these Senators hundreds of millions to thee pet projects is totally unacceptable. With no public health insurance option totally strip in the Senate and it’s still favored in the lower house, I just don’t see how this is going pan out.
For a layman like me, it is very hard to comprehend how the magnitude on how far they go just to get these votes even it is so unpopular to masses. How can a trusted lawmaker stomach that kind of deals or bribery? is there anything ethical or morally right these days or simply these words are just writing on the encyclopedia?
A 100 million for the lawmaker from Louisiana so they can secure her vote! Compromise on how to tax other health services such increasing one and the getting rid of the other just to satisfy the request for a senators State. Public health care should be given to every American citizen but not at this expense.
The Health Care Reform bill has gone too far and has disregard the very foundation of what the US pres. profess to do. Clean and transparent government and upholding ethical and moral values.
Can any one step in and say “with TEETH” this has gone too far and has to Stop!???
Good Luck America!
Now the Senate democrats have the number to push the Health Care Reform bill to pass before the Christmas timetable. Senator Ben Nelson who was a hold out and wanted some more changes to abortion part of the bill got his wishes. So now they have the Magic 60 votes to get through Senate. The remains if the public health insurance option would still be an option. Or did they change the wording on it and would still have the public health care option?
This is Big Win for Pres Obama who has been the main supporter and or probably the author of this bill in essence. Whether we will see the public health insurance option or not the passage of the Health Care Reform bill is almost a done deal!
This is very great news to all democrats and Americans who were in favor of this health care reform but great sadness for those republicans and other Americans who thought that it will cut a lot of the services going to Medicare and left some seniors in serious trouble.
There are two sides to this and if this bill passes through it got to have the real value otherwise people would shouting on the streets for a hush-hush health care reform.
The other question now is who are the winners and losers in all of this big debate and sometime personal debates between the Democrats and the Republicans?
Some of the health care insurer are going to be hit by this and some estimates has it some will close down and since the economy is very weak and still a working progress, companies closing down is the last thing you need to see.
With the news of Senator Ben Nelson not yet in favor of the health care reform bill, the Democrats badly needed his vote to make the 60 votes needed to prevent the filibuster from the Republicans.
Sen. Ben Nelson withheld his vote because he needed to see more stricter rules on abortion and unless it is modified he is withholding his vote. This bill is fully supported by Pres. Obama.
The problem of democrats to get this done before Christmas become unrealistic when when Sen. Olympia Snowe said after a meeting with the President that the timetable given is “totally unrealistic” According to the AP Associated Press news from yahoo news online.
This has put any chance of getting some form of publicly funded public health insurance option for people who cannot afford it. With the strong lobbying by big insurance companies for the bill not to pass has makes things worse for the President and the Democrats who have tabled this bill.
Without the public health insurance option or public health care option on the table or on the bill, it will be hard for those 47 million or whatever the number is, to get any decent type or form of health insurance.
This will most likely not going to pass the Senate floor before the Christmas timetable that Pres. Obama has said.
I just hope that these Senators will have some kind of a compromise to this historical health reform bill so that Americans can get what they deserve.
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