Health Care Reform
Health Care Exchanges and Changes in American Insurance
Under the new health care reform, most American citizens will be required to obtain health insurance. With this new mandate come many new procedures in regards to health insurance and how to shop for it. One of these new procedures is called an exchange. These have been set up by the legislation to provide those seeking policies a place to compare rates and find the best companies that will offer them affordable insurance (much of which will be partially or completely covered by financial aid). Individuals and small businesses will band together to form these exchanges and to take advantage of discounts and breaks on their new policies. It is a one stop shop with all the information you will need to research and obtain health insurance.
Likely most of these exchanges will be set up in call centers, but really it is up to each individual state to decide how their exchange program will be run.
The federal government will initially provide start up money to establish these exchanges. They are required to be open for business by 2014. If your particular state does not open an exchange, then the government will step in and open one
These exchanges do not stand to serve those who have American insurance through their employers. It is meant for the self-employed, unemployed and under employed; those who must obtain individual policies. Those with insurance through their employer will find that their policies will stay for the most part the same, with most of the conditions being grandfathered into the new health care reform bill.
The American Insurance Reform Bill
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed legislation to overhaul the American insurance system and guarantee access to medical insurance for millions of American citizens. The House had voted two days before on Sunday evening, with the bill being approved 219 to 212. The passing of the bill followed decades of efforts by Democratic leaders to change the nation’s health care system. Republican legislators voted unanimously against the bill in both houses, and vowed to repeal the bill and challenge it in a court of law.
The bill will provide coverage to approximately 30 million people who are currently without. The bill requires most Americans to have health care coverage, and would add 16 million people to Medicaid. It seeks to subsidize private coverage for low and middle income people. It will also regulate private insurers more closely, and ban practices such as denial of care for pre-existing conditions.
The law will cost the government approximately $938 billion dollars over the course of ten years, according to the non partisan Congressional Budget Office. They also estimate that it will reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over a decade.
President Obama and his fellow Democratic leaders have spent the better part of a year fighting for the bill, debating on the topic. An earlier version of the bill was nearly passed in November of 2009. It was merged with a bill the Senate had passed on December 24. Once the bills were merged, their fate was put in jeopardy when the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy was replaced by a Republican. With this outcome, the Democrats were short by one vote to pass the bill.
After this, President Obama came out with his own version of the bill. After a bipartisan summit at the White House, he began to push the bill. The Democrats finally were victorious in passing their much-awaited Health Care Reform.
Health Care Reform and American Insurance
The most important element of the new Health Care Insurance Reform, the one that has people talking the most, is the fact that most people will be required to obtain health insurance. This makes people pause. How can you enforce such a thing? How will everyone afford it?
The way the healthcare reform bill will work is by mandating American citizens and legal residents to purchase the minimum of essential coverage for themselves and any dependents. It can be obtained through an employer or through the regular marketplace that sells individual policies (called an exchange). For those who do not purchase health insurance, a tax penalty will be required, paid to the federal government, beginning in 2014. The fine starts off small and grows exponentially by the year. There are a few people who are exceptions to the rule, such as those with religious objections, Native Americans, illegal immigrants and prisoners – these people are not required to obtain health insurance. Those who cannot afford any type of insurance will be able to obtain Medicaid.
The thought process behind this mandate is that people who are young and healthy will flood the market with new insurance policies. The money coming into the American insurance companies will help to provide insurance for those who need it and cannot necessarily afford it. The new customers will help to balance out the costs that insurance companies try to avoid, such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (in the new bill, they will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to these people).