Affordable Health Care
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. The law put in place comprehensive health insurance reforms that will roll out over 4 years and beyond, with most changes taking place by 2014. At this writing, the law has been in effect for over 1 year and the following changes have occurred:
1. Providing small business health insurance tax credits, 2. Relief for 4 million seniors who hit the Medicare prescription drug
“donut hole,” 3. Providing access to insurance for uninsured Americans with pre-
existing conditions, 4. Providing free preventive care, 5. Establishing consumer assistance programs in the states, 6. Free preventive care for seniors, and 7. Improving health care quality and efficiency.
It does not matter whether a person or family gets health benefits through work, buys insurance themselves, has a small business and desire to provide health coverage to their employees, are on Medicare, or don’t currently have insurance, the Affordable Care Act gives a better control of decisions about health coverage. It is designed to make health care insurance affordable by pro- viding small businesses with a tax credit to provide coverage, and in 2014 it will provide tax credits to those who need help in buying insurance. This facet rep- resents the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history. The Affordable Care Act is projected to reduce premium costs for millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today (2011). This could help as many as 32 million Americans who have no health care receive coverage.