We’ve all heard that the vaunted exchanges from which insurance buyers can pick and choose health insurance plans don’t go into effect until 2014. What does this legislation do this year? From money columnist Jane Bryant Quinn:
- For young people–You?ll be allowed to stay on your parents? group plan or individual policy until you?re 26.
- For people buying new private plans–Preventive services will be free, with no co-pays or deductibles.
- For early retirees–You?ll get access to an insurance risk pool, at lower cost, if you?re retired, between 55 and 64 and not in a retiree group plan.
- For the uninsured of all ages–You, too, get immediate access to a temporary high-risk pool until the new insurance exchanges are in place.
- For the seriously ill–The bill bans insurance companies from the reprehensible (and, for them, highly profitable) practice of canceling the policies of people who get an expensive illness. (Rescission)
- For small businesses–Tax credits of up to 35 percent for firms that choose to offer health coverage to their employees. That?s effective immediately.
- For seniors–If you?re on a Medicare drug plan and need a lot of prescription drugs, the House would give you a $250 rebate this year when you hit the ?donut hole.?
I got a call this morning at work. A family has been interested in a child who needs some significant medical care, and their insurance company has refused to guarantee that he’s be covered.
They’re going to adopt him. His mom was in tears and told me that now, no one will be able to deny him coverage. I admit, I cried too.
Take that, John Boehner.
And the Tea Partiers are vowing revenge!! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!! I must be awfully dense because I just don’t understand them at all. They love their Medicare but evidently don’t want anyone else to have any of the same thing.
To borrow a tag from the Alaskan blog, the Mudflats, “eye rollery”, because that’s what I’m doing this morning.