health benefit changes Obama bill

brief listof future benifits--list from ARA 3-2010


Health Care Reform: What's in it for Seniors

The Senate-passed health care reform bill dramatically cleared the House on a 219-212 vote Sunday night, and President Obama signed it into law on Tuesday. Please see the Alliance's Special Edition Friday Alert of March 23 at http://bit.ly/dttZ01 for more details of the related votes. The reform phases out the doughnut hole gap in prescription drug coverage, providing a $250 rebate in 2010 for seniors who fall into the hole. Beginning in 2011, seniors will receive a 50% percent discount on their prescription drugs when they fall into the doughnut hole, and by 2020 the doughnut hole will be completely eliminated. To see the Alliance's one-page write-up listing provisions in the health reform law that will affect seniors, along with the time line for their implementation, go to http://bit.ly/9mja6j. To summarize that document, the new law also:


•Covers preventive services; in 2011, seniors in Medicare will receive free annual check-ups with no co-payments for mammograms, colonoscopies and other preventive screenings;
•Supports early retiree coverage, providing financial assistance to employer health plans that cover early retirees;
•Encourages doctors to coordinate care and improve quality, creating incentives for providers to work together and reduce wasteful care like repeated tests;
•Removes obstacles to changing Part D prescription drug plans, allowing Part D enrollees to make a mid-year change in their enrollment if their plan makes an unexpected change;
•Expands the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy, which will significantly help struggling seniors afford their health care costs;
•Enacts the CLASS Act, creating new long-term assistance for seniors and the disabled;
•Enacts the Elder Justice Act, authorizing new criminal background checks on long-term care workers who have access to residents or patients; and
•Eliminates wasteful overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans while creating incentives for coordinated, high quality care across the health care spectrum, extending the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by 9 years and improving Medicare for generations to come.
For a listing of which changes take effect immediately, go to http://bit.ly/ag60lc. In short - in addition to the doughnut hole changes - within the next six months alone, the new law:


•Provides a $5 billion reinsurance fund to help employers who provide health benefits to early retirees ages 55 to 64 (goes into effect in 90 days);
•Eliminates pre-existing conditions for non-dependent children up to age 26;
•Prohibits insurers from placing lifetime limits on coverage;
•Restricts new plans' annual limits on coverage;
•Provides $5 billion to states to create a high risk insurance pool for those denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions and who have been without insurance for 6 months;
•Prohibits rescission, or dropping coverage, when individuals become sick;
•Creates a public health and wellness fund and requires new private insurance plans to offer preventive services without co-payments;
•Provides up to 35 % tax credits to small business that offer health care coverage; and
•Creates a new and independent health insurance appeals process for consumers

not the best, best will have to do