Category: Affordable Care Act

New labels will soon help consumers choose health plans

 

By Susan Jaffe, May 7, 2011, KAISER HEALTH NEWS  in collaboration with The Chicago Tribune

Cars have sticker prices, ketchup bottles have nutrition-facts labels, and soon health plans will get coverage labels.

For the first time, consumers  shopping for a health policy will be able to get a good idea of how Chicago Tribune logomuch of the costs different plans will cover for three medical conditions: maternity care, treatment for diabetes and breast cancer. And because buying insurance is more complicated than buying a can of soup, the proposed insurance labels are two pages long.  ….The new “coverage facts labels” are required under the health overhaul law, which directed the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners to draft them. [MORE]…

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By Susan Jaffe  |  April 26, 2011

KAISER HEALTH NEWS in collaboration with wapo

Despite tough economic times, there are some things the government can’t give away.

Starting this year, seniors enrolled in Medicare no longer have to pay for more than a dozen tests and other services to help prevent or control cancer and other costly and debilitating diseases. These benefits, which also include an annual wellness exam, are part of the new federal health-care law.

But big crowds aren’t lining up for free mammograms or colonoscopies, although early data indicate that the free wellness checkup is luring patients.  CONTINUED  

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Medicare Patients Aren’t Taking Advantage Of Some Newly Free Tests

Obama administration delaying some rules for appealing health insurance denials

By Susan Jaffe |  March 30, 2011 | Kaiser Health News  produced in collaboration with   

The Obama administration is delaying until next January its enforcement of some new rules designed to protect patients who appeal insurers’ decisions to deny or reduce health care benefits… not affected by the latest government announcement is the timeframe given to consumers to file an appeal. Under most plans, beneficiaries have 180 days after receiving a denial notice to request a review…. more
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Little-provision provision of overhaul law requires companies to tell it like it is

By SUSAN JAFFE                  updated Dec. 16, 2010

KAISER HEALTH NEWS in partnership with  

Choosing a health insurance policy should be easier if consumers use the simple chart and other information that state insurance commissioners approved Thursday.

“It will force the insurance companies to reveal information in a consistent way,” says Bonnie Burns, a policy specialist for California Health Advocates, a consumer health advocacy group. “And it should make it easier for people to understand what they’re getting and not getting.”

 Under a little-known provision of the health overhaul law, insurers will be required to provide their benefits information on a standardized chart using the same plain English terms as other companies to help shoppers understand and compare complicated policies.      MORE

Speak plain English, health insurers told

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HEALTH CARE REFORM EXPLAINED        Your questions answered                      [weekly column]   


By: Susan Jaffe | from       BULLETIN  | July 5, 2010

Q. We own a small business and can’t afford health insurance for our part-time employees. Will health care reform make things even tougher by making us pay for their health coverage?

A. The law does not require businesses to provide health insurance (although large companies can be assessed a penalty if they don’t). But if you offer coverage, as a small company, you can receive tax credits worth up to 35 percent of the cost of that insurance for tax years 2010 to 2013, and up to 25 percent for nonprofit organizations.                   More

The New Health Care Law and Small Businesses