Explain Obamacare in easy terms please - not politcal!

[away2school]

<p>I really don’t understand the important issues of Obamacare…could somebody please explain it to me - and the important changes that will occur as a result - so that I can understand it.</p>

<p>I am soooo confused by all the details!</p>

[tk21769]

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/1033265-rip-election-politics-forum.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/1033265-rip-election-politics-forum.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(Turn on CNN or the News Hour this evening. Or Google around. Plenty of information is available on the mandate, the expansion of Medicaid, coverage for pre-existing conditions, and other aspects of the Affordable Care Act.)</p>

[SansSerif]

<p>There was a great thread on here with some thoughtful explanations of the ACA, its effect, and the decision today. But now it’s gone. I never got to the last page so maybe it got nasty, but it’s a shame it’s gone. I learned a lot.</p>

[MD_Mom_1]

<p>As a parent of two children, 18 and 21, the healthcare policy lets us keep them on our insurance up to age 26 if they do not have a job that provides it. It also addresses pre-existing conditions.</p>

[toledo]

<p>It was a great thread. Thanks to the moderators for allowing the time. I learned a lot and most of the posts were very civil. Did it turn nasty?</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>The ABCs of Obamacare:</p>

<p>Insurance companies must insure anyone who applies.
Insurance companies are not allowed to exclude pre-existing conditions.
Everyone must get coverage or pay a tax.
By 2014, the states must provide an “exchange” in which people who otherwise can’t find coverage can participate.</p>

<p>Everything else is a detail.</p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>How it will work in my state.

Federal law’s provisions
Children up to age 26: State law now allows children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance plans, similar to the popular provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But the federal law also covers self-insured companies — most of the state’s large employers.
Children with pre-existing conditions: The federal law prohibits insurers from refusing to cover children up to age 19 with pre-existing conditions.</p>

<p>Insurance for high-risk patients: Washington has two insurance pools for state residents with pre-existing health conditions who have been denied insurance. The state high-risk pool, established in the 1990s after insurers stopped offering individual plans in the state, will still exist. The federal pool, created by the ACA for people who had been without insurance for at least six months, will vanish in 2014, when such patients become eligible for other coverage.</p>

<p>Lifetime limits: Insurers typically impose lifetime limits on medical expenses; the federal law removes those limits.</p>

<p>Independent review of denials: People denied a particular treatment by commercial insurers already have the right of third-party review in Washington, which adopted a patients’ bill-of-rights law in 2001. The federal law extends that to all insurance plans, including those offered by self-insured companies.</p>

<p>Canceled coverage: The federal law bars insurers from canceling coverage after a patient gets sick, unless there is outright fraud on the patient’s part.</p>

<p>Preventive services: The federal law removes patient co-pays for many preventive services, including those covered in Medicare plans.</p>

<p>Seniors on Medicare: Those with large prescription-drug expenses received a check for $250 after the law passed, and now get a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs if they hit the so-called “donut hole,” where they must pay their own way until out-of-pocket costs trigger coverage again; the law calls for the gap to be eliminated by 2020.</p>

<p>Medical-loss ratios: One of the most controversial parts of the law requires insurers, starting in 2011, to spend most of what they collect in premiums on actual care or quality-improvement efforts. Some states, such as Washington, have similar — but less stringent — requirements. The ACA’s spending requirement, which a Forbes magazine columnist predicted would amount to a “death panel” for some for-profit insurers, was 85 percent for large groups, 80 percent for others.</p>

<p>Help for small businesses: Tax credits in the ACA, which began in 2010, aim to help small businesses with low-wage employees afford health coverage.</p>

<p>Patient safety provisions: Those include a new patient-safety center, regulations requiring more reporting of hospital-acquired infections and other injuries, and incentives for providers to improve care.q

</p>

<p>Website explaining the law.
[Home</a> | HealthCare.gov](<a href=“http://www.healthcare.gov/]Home”>http://www.healthcare.gov/)</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>OP, I advise you to listen to Obama’s address today . Starting about 1:00 minute into the speech, he puts on his “professorial hat” and he clearly lays out what the ACA does and does not do. </p>

<p>[Obama</a> on the Health Care Ruling - Video Library - The New York Times](<a href=“http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/28/us/100000001634340/president-obama-on-scotus-ruling.html]Obama”>http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/28/us/100000001634340/president-obama-on-scotus-ruling.html)</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>here is a link to the healthcare law.</p>

<p>The yellow Key features of the Law menu on the left gives detailed information on every section of the law. </p>

<p>[Read</a> the Law | HealthCare.gov](<a href=“http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html]Read”>About the ACA | HHS.gov)</p>

[hayden]

<p>No one has yet mentioned the abolition of lifetime caps. Fortunately, most people never found out that their insurance had a lifetime cap; i.e, once they had used up a certain amount (usually $1 million), then it ended. Full stop. </p>

<p>This problem was the reason quite a number of people went into bankruptcy. They bought the right insurance and paid their premiums, but needed cancer care or open heart surgery, and suddenly got a letter saying their insurance was ending.</p>

<p>Obamacare did away with caps, so it now works just like auto insurance or workers comp does, which is it doesn’t have an aggregate cap.</p>

[sally305]

<p>… the OP specifically requested that we not get political, and earlier posters said another discussion on this turned nasty and got deleted. Let’s respect the spirit of the question at hand.</p>

<p>Right now ALL of us pay for the uninsured, in the way of higher premiums–because hospitals can’t turn away anyone who needs medical care. Getting more people into the insured pool will mean lower costs for everyone over time.</p>

<p>Healthcare costs have been increasing at an astronomical rate, but the increases have slowed down where certain facets of Obamacare are in effect.</p>

<p>Let’s remember too that this plan was modeled after the Massachusetts plan, which residents seem to like by a 2:1 margin. NINETY-EIGHT percent of MA residents are insured now, and 90 percent of doctors say the quality of health care has increased. And I bet you can figure out who put it into effect. :)</p>

[paying3tuitions]

<p>Many posts just deleted for political diatribes. That’s a shame. Please seek the factual information elsewhere. Links to several helpful websites remain above.</p>