Working Together For Michigan Consumers To be Healthy

Benefits for Families

Benefits for Families

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). One of the main purposes of the law is to decrease the high number of people who have no health care coverage.

Over the next 6 years as the provisions of the ACA are phased in, 32 million more people are expected to be able to access coverage because it has become more affordable. Many provisions in the law are helpful to families.

Here’s how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Helps Children:

  • Starting in 2010, children cannot be denied health insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
  • The ACA requires that insurance policies cover recommended preventive care for children with no co-pays or deductibles, including annual physicals and recommended vaccinations.
  • The ACA ends lifetime limits (caps) on coverage (2010) and ends annual limits on coverage (phased in up to 2014) – so children and their families with expensive care do not get cut off from coverage after they hit the cap.
  • The ACA makes rescission illegal – this is the insurance company practice of dropping coverage when children or their parents become sick (2010).
  • The ACA requires that insurance for children includes vision and oral care (2014).
  • The ACA funds pilot projects to study ways to improve care, such as the Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project (2010).
  • The ACA extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (MiChild) for two years.

In Addition to the Provisions Listed Above, Here’s how the ACA Helps Young Adults:

  • The ACA allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plans until age 26 (2010).
  • The ACA creates state-based health insurance exchanges so young adults can easily compare different options and decide how much coverage they want, including a catastrophic-only coverage (2014).
  • The ACA offers fully subsidized insurance for those with incomes at or below 133% of the federal poverty level.
  • The ACA requires that insurance policies cover recommended preventive care for adults with no co-pays or deductibles, including annual physicals and recommended vaccinations.

In Addition to these Provisions, the ACA also Helps Adults By:

  • Ending “gender rating” – the insurance company practice of charging women more than men for the same coverage (this practice currently affects policy costs for all families with women – raising the cost for the whole family) (2014).
  • Ending the practice of denying coverage for women’s pre-existing conditions, such as domestic violence, breast cancer, pregnancy, C-section or domestic abuse.

Parents, both men and women, will benefit from greater access to coverage and preventive care. The financial security of knowing that medical bills will not threaten the family’s future is also a benefit to all American families.

Content courtesy of MichUHCAN (Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network Universal Health Care Access Network)