Health Care Reform Bill Summary: What is in the Health Care Reform Bill? is a copyrighted article from the World Correspondents
With the recent passage of the new Health Care Reform Bill into law, a lot of Americans are left asking themselves “what is in the Health Care Reform Bill?”
Does the pros outnumber the cons? Will this new Health Care Reform Bill be really beneficial to the Americans or will it be detrimental in the long run given the huge amount of expenses involved, which is pegged at $940 billion? To answer these questions, let’s examine it by having a Health Care Reform Bill Summary.
In this summary, several features of this new Health Care Reform Bill will be discussed to inform the average Americans about this new Health Care Reform Bill recently signed into law by President Obama.
Health Care Reform Bill Summary:
1. Uninsured Americans will get the most benefit out of it. With this Health Care Reform Bill now passed into law, health insurance firms won’t be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
Sounds good news? Not really. Americans who decided not to get health insurance will have to pay a penalty fee of $695 per year or 2.5% of income (phased in before 2016)
2. Drug and Biotech companies will also benefit a lot in the passage of this new Health care Reform Bill into law. They will suddenly have additional tens of millions more insured customers who can afford their expensive medicines.
3. For senior citizens, the so-called “Medicare Donut Hole” is now closed upon the passage of this bill. However, for those who are not yet considered as ‘senior’, health insurance firms can no longer deny Americans because of age.
4. Americans who have existing health insurance may probably see their premiums go up. This is especially true if you purchase your own health insurance but don’t qualify for any of the new subsidies brought by this new Health Care Reform Bill.
5. As the new Health Care Reform Bill promises to benefit millions of poor American individuals, the rich and wealthy Americans get affected. Under this new Health Care Reform Bill, there’s a 0.9% increase in Medicare payroll taxes for Americans who earn more than $200,000 annually individually and $250,000 for couples.
6. Given the huge expenses of the US Government, they are more likely be of control in the health insurance industry. With this, they can have easy access to private and confidential information among patients.
7. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get subsidies in the form of tax credits to help cover the health insurance premiums of their employees.
8. Extension of parents’ health insurance to their children who are young adults will rise up to the age of 27. This means more and more young adults will get beneficial health insurance coverage from their parents’ coverage until they reached the age of 27.
9. Are you worried in the sum insured or lifetime caps of health insurance contracts? With the passage of this new Health Care Reform Bill, this will be abolished and banned. In addition, annual caps will be limited, and banned in the year 2014.
10. Since the US Government will be more likely be of control in the health insurance industry, chec and balance among health insurance firms will be monitored to avoid health insurance fraud and waste.
What do you think of this new Health Care Reform Bill? Whether you’re pro or against it, share your opinions and read others’ comments too in our mini discussion here.
