Insurance Services at Low Cost from Medical Benefits Pittsburgh, PA

"Health Care Reform Overview"

Within 60 days, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to develop a tool that will help consumers easily compare health benefits offered by private insurers.
Americans who have been uninsured for at least six months due to pre-existing conditions will have immediate access to affordable coverage through high-risk pools. The cost would not exceed $5,950 for individuals purchasing coverage.
States will be required to maintain children’s health insurance coverage and their Medicaid coverage – and are not allowed to tighten eligibility or make it more difficult for those eligible to enroll. States will have to maintain their CHIP and Medicaid rules until state-based health insurance exchanges are put in place in 2014.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services will be required to establish criteria that will help determine whether insurance carriers or employer-sponsored plans have discouraged individuals from enrolling based on their health status.

Dependents will be able to remain covered by their parents' health insurance policies until their 27th birthday.
Insurance companies will be prohibited from imposing annual and lifetime caps on the amount they pay to cover policy holders' health care needs.
Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
Insurance companies will no longer able to rescind coverage – or cancel a policy retroactively – unless they can prove fraud by the dropped policy holder.

Seniors who hit the "doughnut hole" – the coverage gap in their Medicare prescription drug benefit – will receive a $250 rebate to help reduce their costs. The gap will be closed by 2020.
Small employers with fewer than 25 workers – whose average salary is less than $50,000 – will receive a tax credit to help pay for employer-sponsored health benefits, up to 35 percent of the employer's cost of providing coverage for employees.
New group health plans and plans in the individual market must begin covering preventive health services.
The legislation will create a temporary reinsurance program to help companies that provide early retiree health benefits to offset costs of the coverage.

from the health insurance resource center