The American healthcare system has undergone drastic reforms in recent years. When signed into law in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented regulations to make health insurance more accessible and affordable for individuals and families across the nation. Let us see what is Obamacare and how it actually changed the entire health insurance industry.
What is Obamacare?
Obamacare is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, was signed into law on March 3, 2010. It makes health care more affordable for everyone by lowering costs for those who can’t afford them. It was phased in over four years. Every citizen was required to have health insurance by March 31, 2014 or face an income tax surcharge. Everyone can choose how to get coverage.
If they already have a plan, whether through their employers, Medicaid, Medicare, or privately, they can keep it. Those who couldn’t get health insurance have additional options too. They can purchase it from a health insurance exchange and possibly get a subsidy. It’s named for President Barack Obama, who championed health care reform during his term from 2009 to 2017.
How it changed the Health Insurance Industry?
1. Health-Insurance Coverage Mandating
The Affordable Care Act sought to get everyone to obtain colorado health-insurance plan, and to do that, it set up what became known as the individual mandate. Under the provision, everyone had to have minimum essential health-insurance coverage or qualify for an exception, or else they would have to pay a financial penalty.
2. Coverage of Preexisting Conditions
No insurance plan could reject you or charge you more because you had a preexisting condition, and once you were enrolled to colorado health insurance plan, your insurer couldn’t raise rates solely based on your health.
3. Expansion of Medicaid
All 50 states offer Medicaid coverage to those who qualify, but the qualifications differ from state to state. The ACA offered the opportunity for states to expand Medicaid coverage to everyone earning 138% or less of the federal poverty line. Obamacare didn’t require states to participate, but the result has been a mixture of provisions that create very different incentives for Americans depending on what states they live in.
4. Coverage-Preventive Care
The Affordable Care Act broadened the set of preventive services that colorado health insurance companies plan were required to cover. Preventive care must includes annual physicals, various screenings, and appropriate immunizations and vaccines for all adults. Women qualify for contraception services and women’s health tests such as mammograms, while children receive scheduled vaccinations and routine age-appropriate screenings.
5. Coverage-Young Adults
Young adults between 18 to 25 used to be among those least who likely to have insurance coverage. Once a parent’s plan no longer allowed a child to maintain coverage, options were limited. So to make this situation easy, the ACA changed things so that in most cases, adult children can remain on a parent’s plan until they turn 26.
6. Lifetime Benefit Limits Removed
Before the ACA, dollar limits on the benefits an insurance plan would pay during an insured person’s lifetime were common. The Affordable Care Act prohibits health plans from imposing lifetime limits on essential health benefits, preventing of losing coverage entirely in the event of a major illness or injury.
7. Patient-Appeal Rights
Prior to the ACA, rights to appeal an insurer’s decision to deny claim payments or end coverage were more limited. In Affordable Care Act, you’re allowed to have an independent third party do an external review. Plus if the reviewer rules in your favor, then the colorado health insurance companies must comply.
8. Protection-Policy Cancellations
Earlier, some insurance companies denied coverage if they found mistakes on an insurance application. The Affordable Care Act made it illegal for insurance companies to cancel coverage simply because of an error. Instead, they must prove that you either fraudulently put false or incomplete information on an application, or you failed to pay your premiums.
With Colorado health insurance companies, we support this new Obamacare ACA, in its ability to provide accessible and affordable colorado health insurance plans to everyone. Let one of our agent help you navigate this new system and find a health plan for you and your family.
Also Read: Health Insurance Plans Colorado – Important Changes and Updates In 2019
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