{"id":2954,"date":"2010-09-23T02:18:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T09:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2010-09-23T02:18:53","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T09:18:53","slug":"health-care-reform-provisions-begin-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/23\/health-care-reform-provisions-begin-but\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Care Reform Provisions Begin, but&hellip;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today is the beginning of several of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.&#160; That\u2019s a good thing for America, but sadly, greedy insurance companies are spoiling the celebration.&#160; Here is what\u2019s happening, and what needs to be done.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">First the new provisions:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: verdana; color: #242424; font-size: 8.25pt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; margin: 2px 0px 5px 10px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"23healthcare\" border=\"0\" alt=\"23healthcare\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/23healthcare.jpg\" width=\"341\" height=\"148\" \/> Yesterday, Nancy-Ann DeParle of the Office of Health Reform joined bloggers for a conference call to highlight the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that go into effect tomorrow, six months after enactment of the law. Those changes:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.75in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Ban on discriminating against children with preexisting conditions<\/strong>: as of tomorrow, <strong>insurance companies can&#8217;t deny coverage to children under age 19 for a pre-existing condition<\/strong>. The ban will go into effect for adults in 2014. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\">Ban on rescission: <strong>insurers will be prohibited from dropping a customer when they get sick or to search for errors in customers&#8217; applications to use as a basis for rescinding coverage or denying payment for services<\/strong>. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Ban on limiting coverage, lifetime caps<\/strong>: Insurers will no longer be able to impose lifetime dollar limits on benefits&#8211;particularly hospital stays or expensive treatments for chronic diseases, cancer, etc. By 2014, they will phase out annual caps. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Ban on limiting doctor choice in new plans<\/strong>: insurers will have to allow primary care physician status for OB\/GYNs and pediatricians so that patients don&#8217;t have to get pre-authorization or referrals to see these providers. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Ban on restrictions on emergency services<\/strong>: insurers will have to cover all emergency care, in or out of network. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Guaranteed right to appeal insurer decisions to independent third party in new plans<\/strong>; <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>Young adults can stay on their parents&#8217; plans til 26<\/strong> unless they have access to coverage in their workplace; <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #242424; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana; font-size: 8.25pt\"><strong>New plans will cover preventive care with no customer costs<\/strong>&#8211;well-baby, mammograms, colonoscopies, etc. will be covered with no co-pays or deductibles.<\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt\">\u2026 [<em>emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Inserted from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/9\/22\/904293\/-First-provisions-of-Affordable-Care-Act-begin\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">All of these reforms are good for America, but note that some of the provisions apply to new plans only.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Sadly, greedy pigs that they are, insurance companies have found a loophole in one of the most important provisions.<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-right-width: 0px; margin: 2px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px\" title=\"23singlepayer\" border=\"0\" alt=\"23singlepayer\" align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/23singlepayer.jpg\" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" \/> Major health insurance companies in California and other states have decided to <strong>stop selling policies for children rather than comply with a new federal healthcare law that bars them from rejecting youngsters with preexisting medical conditions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc. and others will <strong>halt new child-only policies<\/strong> in California, Illinois, Florida, Connecticut and elsewhere as early as Thursday when provisions of the nation&#8217;s new healthcare law take effect, including a requirement that insurers cover children under age 19 regardless of their health histories.<\/p>\n<p>The action will apply only to new coverage sought for children and not to existing child-only plans, family policies or insurance provided to youngsters through their parents&#8217; employers. An estimated 80,000 California children currently without insurance and as many as 500,000 nationwide would be affected, according to experts\u2026 [<em>emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Inserted from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2010\/sep\/21\/business\/la-fi-kids-health-insurance-20100921\" target=\"_blank\">LA Times<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I warned that insurance companies would look for and find loopholes in this law.&#160; State legislatures can pass laws requiring insurance companies to honor this provision as a precondition for selling new policies in that state, but Republican legislatures won\u2019t pass it and Republican governors won\u2019t sign it, leaving those children at risk.&#160; And that does nothing for the next loophole.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Consider this:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">You come home and find a burglar stealing your valuables.&#160; You call 9-1-1 and the dispatcher says, \u201cYour police insurance does not cover preexisting conditions, and you have valuables in your home.&#160; We can\u2019t help you.\u201d&#160;&#160; Ridiculous?&#160; Aren\u2019t you glad you have universal single-payer police protection?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">You come home and find your home starting to burn.&#160; You call 9-1-1 and the dispatcher says, \u201cYour firefighter insurance does not cover preexisting conditions.&#160; Your home has a wood frame.&#160; We can\u2019t help you.\u201d&#160; Absurd?&#160; Aren\u2019t you glad you have universal single-payer firefighter protection?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Health care is a need as universal and the need for police and firefighters.&#160; It is a need far too important to leave to greedy insurance, who care everything about profit and nothing about health.&#160; America needs universal single payer health protection.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the beginning of several of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.&#160; That\u2019s a good thing for America, but sadly, greedy insurance companies are spoiling the celebration.&#160; Here is what\u2019s happening, and what needs to be done. First the new provisions: Yesterday, Nancy-Ann DeParle of the Office of Health Reform joined bloggers for <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/23\/health-care-reform-provisions-begin-but\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}