As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” is constitutional—and Republicans outshout each other with vows to repeal it—millions are benefiting from provisions of the law that are already in effect.
Muddying people’s responses to the law is the fact that many may not understand the connection between it and the benefits they’re receiving—and may not realize that they stand to lose protections against illness and medical bankruptcy if the law is repealed.
Were you appalled by widely publicized cases in which people who had been paying health insurance premiums for years had their policies cancelled when they were diagnosed with cancer or other serious diseases? Since September, 2010 the ACA has made it illegal for insurers to rescind coverage when customers get sick. No longer can insurance companies use inaccuracies unearthed from a client’s application as an excuse to deny coverage after collecting tens of thousands of dollars in premium payments from that client.
Do you know someone whose insurer refused to cover needed hospitalization because the patient had reached a lifetime limit on reimbursement for hospital care? Since September, 2010, the ACA has outlawed those lifetime limits.
Also since 2010, young people have been allowed to remain covered under their parents’ insurance until age 26 rather than age 24. That’s kept an estimated two million or more people from losing coverage at a time when unemployment for that age group is exceptionally high.
Have you heard of children with life-threatening illnesses being denied coverage by health insurers who refused to cover pre-existing conditions? Since 2010, the ACA has prohibited that practice.
Since 2010, seniors who have reached the so-called “doughnut hole,” or gap in their reimbursement for prescription medications, have received discounts and other assistance; the government says that in 2011, 3.6 million Medicare recipients saved $2.1 billion on their medicines because of the ACA. By 2020 the doughnut hole will disappear—if the law is not repealed. If it is, the reforms mentioned here, or some of them, may be reversed.
Americans are just becoming aware that the ACA established the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, which now has some 50,000 enrollees nationwide and is growing as more people with cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions learn about it. Perhaps the best-known PCIP client is Spike Ward of Los Angeles, who was diagnosed with breast cancer after her husband lost his job. In a widely circulated Web post, Ward wrote, “I’ve been saved by the federal government’s Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. …I was pretty mad at Obama before I learned about this new insurance plan. … I’m sorry I didn’t do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. “
PCIP is an insurance plan, not a taxpayer-funded free program. It’s intended to be a bridge until the ACA makes it illegal in 2014 for insurers to reject adults because of pre-existing conditions. (Though Massachusetts has its own universal health insurance program, the PCIP in this state is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; to enroll, visit www.massresources.org/pcip.html.)
And in 2014, when the law is fully implemented, members of Congress will choose their plans from the same health insurance exchanges as the rest of us—if they don’t repeal Obamacare.
