Making Health Care Work
The health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law
by the President will make health care work for our country by lowering
costs for Americans and once and for all level the playing field
between American families and insurance companies.
Here are the immediate benefits that this new law will provide American consumers this year:
• Prohibits pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
• Prohibits dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
• Lowers seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
• Offers tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
• Eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
• Requires plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;
• Requires new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations;
• Ensures consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
• Offers uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions the choice of enrolling in insurance provided through a temporary high-risk pool;
• Requires premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with
high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the
percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.
Health Care Reform Makes Sense
Fixing the health care system makes good economic sense, too, according to two recent U.S. PIRG reports.
A new report from U.S. Public Interest Research Group shows that more effective and less expensive care would be one of many benefits of an improved health care system.
The report, which looks at what is called "comparative effectiveness research," finds that for the majority of medical conditions, no studies exist to help doctors – and their patients – determine the most effective course of treatment among all the available option.
Another recent report, entitled Putting America Back to Work, finds that proposals to tame health care costs could allow the creation of 2.5 million jobs over a five year period without inflationary effects, and yield stronger economic growth over the long term.
To download the brief, click here.
Overview
Health care costs have doubled over the last decade. The average job-based family insurance plan costs more than $12,000 a year and is expected to double by 2016.
America’s health care system is structured to profit the drug industry, insurance companies, and medical specialty businesses. It is not structured to provide better health care for American families.
Arizona PIRG will be fighting for affordable health care that every family can depend on by:
• Stopping insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
• Trimming costly red tape and overhead through simplified insurance forms, information technology and insurer-efficiency standards.
• Rewarding personalized care from your provider and prevention, not just endless tests, procedures and emergency room visits.
• Giving every patient and doctor the most up-to-date information on which treatments and medicines work best.
• Making insurance plans compete for your business, by letting Americans choose the care that’s right for them: keep the coverage they have, choose another private insurance plan, or select a quality public health insurance option.
