What Does Health Insurance Reform Mean for You?

“It has been a long year, but we have persevered with our ideals intact.  This bill is not perfect, and as it is implemented we will certainly have more work to do,” says Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President David Newby.  “We have learned lessons that will help us better organize for continued improvements in our health care system.”

After decades of fighting to improve our health care system, many working people are uncertain about what the new law will actually mean for their families. 

Below is a list of highlights from the new health care laws.  For a more detailed schedule of when these changes will take effect, click here to visit our website.

Insurance Company Accountability

Reform limits wasteful spending on executive salaries, eliminates annual and lifetime limits on benefits and ends denials for preexisting conditions and discriminatory premiums for women.

It also requires government review of excessive rate increases.

Lower Costs

The new law reduces union plan costs with reimbursements for early retirees. 

New health insurance exchanges—where members of Congress must get their health coverage— will lower costs by increasing competition.

The exchanges and new tax credits and cost sharing assistance to low- and middle-income Americans—the largest tax cut for health care in history—will make insurance affordable for people who don’t get health care through their employers.

The bill also gives seniors additional help paying for prescription drugs, closes the Medicare “donut hole” and requires free preventive care through Medicare.

More Children Will Have Insurance

Starting this year, children can’t be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and they can stay on their parent’s policy until they are 26 years old.

Employer Accountability

The new law requires large employers to pay a penalty for workers who need subsidies in the exchanges to buy their own insurance.

Deficit Reduction

The independent Congressional Budget Office estimates that health care reform will reduce the budget deficit by $138 million over 10 years and another $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

Union members will continue to have the employer sponsored health coverage they have won at the bargaining table.

It is also worth noting that eighty-five percent of the proposed excise tax on benefits is gone, thanks to the work of activists in the labor movement.

For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/healthcare.

Comments

[Actos]

Actos is for people with type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes. Pioglitazone is sometimes used in combination with insulin or other medications, but it is not for treating type 1 diabetes.