How will health care reform affect me?
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) to reform the U.S. health care system. These are the effective dates of the law's major provisions, and who they will affect.
Within a year of the bill's passage:
- Will provide a $250 rebate to Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries whose initial benefits run out.
90 days after enactment:
- Will provide immediate access to high-risk pools for people with no insurance because of pre-existing conditions.
Six months after enactment:
- Will bar insurers from denying people coverage when they get sick
- Will bar insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions
- Will bar insurers from imposing lifetime caps on coverage
- Will require insurers to allow people to stay on their parents' policies until they turn 26
2011
- Will require individual and small group market plans to spend 80 percent of premium dollars on medical services. Large group plans will have to spend at least 85 percent
2013
- Will increase the Medicare payroll tax and expand it to dividend, interest and other unearned income for singles earning more than $200,000 and joint filers making more than $250,000
2014
- Will provide subsidies for families earning up to 400 percent of poverty level, currently about $88,000 a year, to purchase health insurance
- Will require most employers to provide coverage or face penalties
- Will require most people to obtain coverage or face penalties
2018
- Will impose a 40 percent excise tax on high-end insurance policies
2019
- Will expand health insurance coverage to 32 million people
You can find more information on health care reform here at our sister site, GovSpot.
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