LEGAL&LEGISLATION;
What ���ObamaCare���
Means to You
By Brian J. Schoolma
Schoolman
Safran Law Of���ces
ce
History of ObamaCare
ObamaCare
The name is well-known, but most
people are surprisingly unaware of
the details. It carries with it epithets of
���socialized medicine,��� and ���government
takeover,��� neither of which are accurate.
There is one detail that just about every
employer knows, or should know. That
is the fact that in 2014, many of the
provisions of ObamaCare will go into
effect. Between now and then, employers
need to get up to speed as to what has
already happened, what is coming, and
what choices they need to make regarding
the best way to provide bene���ts for their
workers while remaining in compliance
with the new federal requirements. At
IDAExpo��� in Nashville, I will be speaking at
greater depth regarding the consequences
of ObamaCare. This article provides some
of the highlights.
The term ���ObamaCare��� refers to the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act of 2010, a bill passed by Congress
and signed into law by President Obama
in March of 2010. Several of the more
popular provisions of the ACA have already gone into effect. Those include:
��� implementation of a new ���Patient���s
Bill of Rights,��� which was intended to
protect consumers from abuses by the
health insurance industry;
��� provision of preventative services
without any patient co-payments;
��� 50% discount on brand-name prescription drugs for recipients in the
Medicare ���donut hole���;
��� prohibiting denial of coverage based
on pre-existing conditions for children
and certain other bene���ciaries;
��� eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage; and
��� holding insurance companies accountable for unjusti���ed rate increases.
See www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/
full.html.
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Under the ACA, the reforms and
other policies were designed to become
effective on a rolling basis. Each year since
2010, more of the bill was implemented
in anticipation of 2014, when virtually the
entirely of the program will go into effect.
The big changes for next year include
prohibition of discrimination due to preexisting conditions or gender, eliminating
annual limits on insurance coverage,
establishing the Health Insurance
Marketplace along with the state
insurance exchanges, increasing access
to insurance and Medicaid coverage,
and implementation of the ���individual
responsibility��� mandate.
Continued on page 13