Finding Health Care

Image via WikipediaIn a new video, President Obama guides consumers through HealthCare.gov. He explains how provisions in the Affordable Care Act will help Americans find quality, affordable coverage, and how the new website works to make health care more accessible.

Here's the video of the session if you'd like to watch it:

Now that it is available, The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has announced a new interactive widget to assist consumers in figuring out their health care coverage options.

(The widget embed code is available to anyone who wishes to post it on their own website or blog. http://www.healthcare.gov/stay_connected.html, and click 'SHOW CODE' below appropriate widget)

Healthcare.gov, the official website and landing place for information regarding the Affordable Health Care Act, uses the tool to prompt visitors to fill out two fields:

• 1) select your state

• 2) choose from a drop down menu of options describing your health care situation

The “next step” button brings visitors to the insurance finder process.

It is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process that helps you search public and private health coverage options so you know where you stand.

Healthcare.gov is one of the requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act and lists the names of insurers and their health plans, along with links to insurers for more complete information.

The Healthcare.gov site also includes:

• a tool to compare care quality of hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis facilities; and

• information on what the health care reform laws really mean.

Although it does not reflect the current changes, the 2010 book is here - Medicare and You Handbook - A Guide to Medicare online. :: Download Medicare & You 2010 - 124 pages (pdf). It provides information about Medicare in general.

In addition The Affordable Care Act protects existing guaranteed Medicare benefits and adds new benefits - from HealthCare.gov: http://www.healthcare.gov/foryou/seniors/index.html (YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X18Zax0XDus&feature=player_embedded)

“The new law strengthens Medicare, reduces fraud, and closes the gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage known as the ‘donut hole.’ In 2018, seniors can expect to save on average almost $200 per year in premiums and over $200 per year in coinsurance compared to what they would have paid without the new law. The Affordable Care Act also takes a number of steps that improve health care for people with Medicare.”

In 2014, when the bulk of the health care legislation takes effect, additional websites will come online for the mandatory state-based insurance exchanges, making it easier for small business and people in the individual market to research health insurance options.

If you already have guaranteed Medicare, benefits you currently receive will remain the same. During open enrolment this fall, you will continue to have a choice between Original Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare will continue to cover your health costs the way it always has, and there are no changes in eligibility. But, there are some important benefits that you and your family can take advantage of starting this year. Look for more details in your Medicare and You Handbook, coming this fall.

Wondering how the latest reform changes will affect you? More detailed information from AARP: Answers to Your Questions About the New Health Care Law

Label: Health Care, Health Insurance, Medicare

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Health Care

Image via Wikipedia

update 8/7/10

Editorial Comment: Although it is still far short of government Health Care provisions in Europe (including the UK's NHS - National Health Service) and Canada's (Health Canada) programs, the United States has now addressed some of the major issues surrounding Health Care.

The following is from: The White House

"Building on a year's work from the House and the Senate, the final health reform legislation that the President signed into law included the best ideas from both sides of the aisle offered in the course of the debate.

• Learn what health reform means for you.

Health reform will make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy:

• It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps 32 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more. Under the plan, 95% of Americans will be insured.

• It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving millions of Americans the same choices of insurance that members of Congress will have.

• It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

• It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

• It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next ten years – and more than $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

Additional Progress

• The President signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act on February 4, 2009, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – 4 million who were previously uninsured.

• The President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act protects health coverage for 7 million Americans who lose their jobs through a 65 percent COBRA subsidy to make coverage affordable.

• The Recovery Act also invests $19 billion in computerized medical records that will help to reduce costs and improve quality while ensuring patients’ privacy.

• The Recovery Act also provides:

  • $1 billion for prevention and wellness to improve America’s health and help to reduce health care costs;

  • $1.1 billion for research to give doctors tools to make the best treatment decisions for their patients by providing objective information on the relative benefits of treatments; and

  • $500 million for health workforce to help train the next generation of doctors and nurses.

Guiding Principles

President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive health reform in his first year in order to control rising health care costs, guarantee choice of doctor, and assure high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

• Learn about the fundamental health insurance consumer protections included in reform.

Comprehensive health care reform can no longer wait. Rapidly escalating health care costs are crushing family, business, and government budgets. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 9 years, a rate 3 times faster than cumulative wage increases. This forces families to sit around the kitchen table to make impossible choices between paying rent or paying health premiums. Given all that we spend on health care, American families should not be presented with that choice. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person – nearly twice the average of other developed nations. Americans spend more on health care than on housing or food. If rapid health cost growth persists, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2025, one out of every four dollars in our national economy will be tied up in the health system. This growing burden will limit other investments and priorities that are needed to grow our economy. Rising health care costs also affect our economic competitiveness in the global economy, as American companies compete against companies in other countries that have dramatically lower health care costs.

The President has vowed that the health reform process will be different in his Administration – an open, inclusive, and transparent process where all ideas are encouraged and all parties work together to find a solution to the health care crisis. Working together with members of Congress, doctors and hospitals, businesses and unions, and other key health care stakeholders, the President is committed to making sure we finally enact comprehensive health care reform.

The Administration believes that comprehensive health reform should:

• Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government

• Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs

• Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans

• Invest in prevention and wellness

• Improve patient safety and quality of care

• Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans

• Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job

• End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions”

Please visit http://www.HealthCare.gov/ to learn more about how the President has helped enact new legislation and change comprehensive health reform this year.

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