The Affordable Care Act is designed to give US consumers control of their healthcare choices. Signed by President Obama in March 2010, this American law includes a patients’ bill of rights and reforms the health care insurance industry.
With the goal of making health care better, more affordable and more accessible, the Affordable Health Care Act brings the following key benefits to Americans:
Accountability for Insurance Companies – an insurer must justify a premium increase of 10% or more before that increase takes effect.
Coverage for Young Adults – accessible for children and young people up the age of 26.
New Protection for Consumers – healthcare cover for pre-existing conditions and more assistance for consumers.
Strengthening Medicare – a number of free preventative services for some seniors with Medicare, as well as yearly wellness visits.
Benefits for Women – Lower costs, better insurance options and improved services for preventative medicine and healthcare.
Improving Quality and Lowering Health Care Costs – discounted prescriptions for seniors, tax credits for small businesses, free preventative care and protection against health care fraud.
Access to Health Care – reform to deliver a more open, accessible and transparent health care marketplace.
If you were looking for information and guidance or simply an answer to the question ‘what is the Affordable Care Act’ then hopefully the details above are of help.
These key attributes of the law were checked and updated on 22nd April 2015, but for the most up to date information on the legislation, you can view a timeline of change here: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html on the US Department of Health & Human Sciences website.