Health Care Coverage Without Pre-Existing Conditions Made Possible After the 2010 Health Care Reform
The recent US comprehensive health reform has brought both positive and negative impact to the US health Insurance. The main objectives are to put a control in the rising health care costs, prepare for an adequate supply of doctors and medical specialists in the near future as well as to enable high quality, cost competitive health care for all Americans.
Here are some key positive changes after the latest 2010 health care reform:
1. Increase in health care provisions, by investing $995 million to support more community health centers in rural areas as well as to offer more funding for medical workforce diversity grants for those from the minority communities to be trained as doctors, nurses, or medical specialists to contribute their workforce in this health care sector, especially in the rural areas.
2. The latest reform legitimates the subsidy for low income working families to buy their insurance and revising the cost and conditions for Medicare, in order to make it more affordable for lower income people. This helps protect families against high debts due to the rising health care costs and also to control the rising health care costs in the industry.
3. This reform has been made compulsory that Corporation / Businesses with more than 25 staffs would have to provide insurance for their workers or they shall be penalized. It also provides tax credits benefits for small businesses in providing health insurance for their employees. The objective here is to ensure employees are protected with insurance coverage even if they left for a new employer.
4. Affordability and accountability are improved through the new reform by calling out for an increase in tax credits for health Insurance premium for families with low income. It also helps to improve the cost sharing assistance for families and individuals where families with income below US$55,000 are liable for extra assistance. With that in place, the cost of premium for low income individuals and family will be reduced while for those with higher range of income, their premium cost should have remained unchanged or increased with this effect.
5. The latest 2010 Health care reform gets to remove the health benefit barriers for those with pre-existing conditions.
- a. A pre-existing condition (such as heart disease and hay fever) is a medical condition that pre-exist before he/she applies for a new health insurance policy.
- b. The reform enables all Americans to enjoy the new Insurance policies and changes equally. This has enabled the US society to regain their bargaining power over the new insurance policies and rules.
- c. Before the reform, patients with pre-existing conditions were largely being discriminated by the health insurance companies where their coverage were denied, charged with a higher premium, or has been rejected to cover for that particular existed medical condition.
- d. Under the latest health insurance reform, insurers are prohibited from denying or rejecting the insurance coverage for someone with pre-existing condition.
In a nutshell, one of the main objectives of this legislation is to drive for the reduction in the number of uninsured Americans who are exposed to high medical cost and treatment fees. Hopefully this reform will provide the necessary relief for the American society, and equip them with improved, stable, secure and affordable health insurance.