A Big Day in Health Care Reform
Today marks six months from the date that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted. Several key provisions of the law become effective today, September 23, 2010, including:
- Expansion of coverage for dependents up to 26 years old.
- Elimination of annual or lifetime dollar limits to the amount of money spent on health care services.
- Prohibition of denials of coverage to children under 19 years old for preexisting conditions.
- Coverage for all preventative services with no co-pays.
- Free preventative care (for all new plans).
These changes take effect immediately for any new policies bought after today. For those with existing policies, however, the changes will take effect either during the next open enrollment period (for employer-based plans) or at the time a policy is renewed (for individually-purchased plans).
To read more about these changes, CNN has posted this article and the government's new health care reform website has posted this article.
