The news has been reporting on the state of President Obama’s plan for health reform since the first few months since he has been in office. Finally a law has passed that will make a foreseeable difference in the lives of citizens in their dealings with the medical insurance industry. Read on to find out how Obama is changing health insurance for Americans.
Small business owners were very concerned when they first heard the new law suggested would force them to offer insurance to their employees. Policies for business are typically expensive, and in hard economic times, small business owners thought that this is the last thing they need. However, the law passed, and small business is protected by a tax deduction, with a varying percentage depending on how many employees there are, and how much the policy to cover them costs.
Differences in the way individual medical cases are going to be handled in the immediate future are dependent upon age and financial status. Requirements upon insurance companies will now force them to extend their policies to the children of customers until the child reaches the age of 26, or find their own independent means of insurance. The income level required for Medicaid coverage has been lowered to include more people just above the poverty level.
The intent of Obama’s plan is to allow every single American to have medical coverage in the near future, and to change the fact that more and more citizens cannot afford it, and go without. When everyone does possess some means of coverage, hospitals will no longer have to charge patients with assets a price that tries to recuperate the hospital after treating so many people who could not afford to pay at all. To encourage the public’s total involvement, a large tax penalty will be placed on anyone who does not have insurance by 2014.
Along with the tax penalty, another aspect of the law comes into existence in 2014; the insurance market exchange. This market will function much like stocks, pitting insurance companies against each other to compile the best coverage for the lowest prices, and allowing customers to move more freely between services. This keeps people from getting stuck with a bad contract.
Obama puts an end to some of insurance company’s slier methods of making a profit, such as dropping a client after they are diagnosed with something, and denying people who already have an illness the company doesn’t want to be guaranteed to pay for. These tactics are now punishable by law, and people with preexisting conditions can get the help they need to aid in paying for their unavoidable medical costs.
Companies also charge more for their policies the older a customer becomes. The new law restricts the charges that can be added based on a person’s age to a 3 to 1 ratio of older against younger. This way, senior citizens cannot be charged increasing amounts they can barely afford to pay, and can only be charged three times more at most than a young person.
This is just a small portion of how Obama is changing health insurance for Americans, and many more benefits are predicted to come out of this change in the long run. It is a historical time for America, and the greatest legal change to medical financing in decades. If everything goes according to plan, prices will drop for patients, and the economy will receive a well-needed boost from people freed from the chains of medical bills.
Get those individual health insurance plans you need now by going online. Laws have changed and buying individual health insurance will be something you have to do. Go online now and learn more.
Tags: health insurance, individual health coverage, individual health insurance, individual health insurance plan, individual health insurance plans, individual health insurances, medical insurance