Starting as early as September 2010:
If a new insurance plan doesn’t pay for services you believe were covered, you have new, clear options to appeal the decision.
Effective for health plan years beginning on or after September 23, 2010
All new plans must cover certain preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance.
Funding begins in 2010
A new $15 billion Prevention and Public Health Fund will invest in proven prevention and public health programs that can help keep Americans healthy – from smoking cessation to combating obesity.
Coordinated care.
The law calls for new investments in community health teams to manage chronic disease. This is important, because minority communities experience higher rates of illness and death for chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, and cancer. Because infant mortality and post-birth complications are also higher in minority and low-income groups, the law includes new funds for home visits for expectant mothers and newborns.
The law calls for new investments in community health teams to manage chronic disease. This is important, because minority communities experience higher rates of illness and death for chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, and cancer. Because infant mortality and post-birth complications are also higher in minority and low-income groups, the law includes new funds for home visits for expectant mothers and newborns.
Ending insurance discrimination.
Insurance discrimination will be banned, so people who have been sick can’t be excluded from coverage or charged higher premiums. Women will no longer have to pay higher premiums because of their gender. New funding will be available to collect information on how women and racial and ethnic minorities experience the health care system, leading to improvements that will benefit these groups.
Health care providers for under served communities.
The Affordable Care Act expands the health care workforce and increases funding for community health centers, which provide comprehensive health care for everyone no matter how much they are able to pay. Health centers serve an estimated one in three low-income people and one in four low-income minority residents. The new resources will enable health centers to double the number of patients they serve. Combined with investments made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the new law will support 16,000 new primary care providers.
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