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Preexisting Conditions and the Affordable Care Act
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law.” (apha.org, 2012) This new health care act means extended publicly funded healthcare to many Americans who were previously uninsured, as well as making health care reasonably more affordable for those who aren’t necessarily considered poor but still are not able to afford health insurance. Many Americans are still unsure of what this new law will entail and how they will be covered. On the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act he made this statement, “Today after almost a century of trying…health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America….We have now just enshrined the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.” (Barr, 2012) Despite the obvious confusion that surrounds this new Affordable Care Act it is evident that it will bring major change to our health care system.
The Affordable Care Act is a group of policies that make up the new law being set in place. Some of these policies include, the expansion of Medicaid, individual mandate, state required health changes, pre-existing condition requirements, expansion of parent coverage of eligible child, and government subsidies ( for businesses and individuals). During the first year of enactment of the ACA (2010-2011) there was an increase in the number of individuals with health insurance plans as well as an increase in the number of patients who will now be seeking care because the care will now be covered or covered longer. As a result of this, insurance companies cannot drop their patients simply because they get sick, the age that children can remain on their parents health insurance has increased to age 26, uninsured individuals with who have preexisting conditions will now be able to obtain health coverage, and reinsurance will be established to help those who want to retire early from age 55-64 to be able to still obtain health insurance. In addition to these policies there will be an available tax credit that will be beneficial to small business owners so that they will be able to provide coverage to their employees. (Saxton, Finkelstein, 2010) These measures went into effect in 2010 and will continue into the year 2018. We will not begin to see the major changes effecting health care providers until the year 2015. All of the newly stated policies that are a part of the Affordable Care Act will work towards more and more individuals being insured.
I am going to focus on the pre existing condition requirements and what the new provisions will be as a part of the Affordable Care Act. “People who have a health condition (such as an illness or pregnancy) or who are at higher than average risk of needing health care are referred to as having a pre-existing health condition.” (kff.org, 2012) In 2014, when the insurance provisions come into acti...
