Health Care Reform Simplified: Guide Your Family And Your Business Through Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform Simplified: Guide Your Family And Your Business Through Health Care Reform

Released June 2011
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430236986

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Book description

Health Care Reform Simplified describes the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It translates the law's complex language into terms that are easy to understand, explaining what the new law does, when its provisions take effect, and how to plan for individual, family, and business coverage. This book outlines the financial impact of the new law and how it affects businesses, insurers, hospitals, and doctors.

Most important, this book gives consumers and employers the critical information they need to make informed choices about many new options for private and public health insurance coverage. It also describes how the new law interacts with Medicare and Medicaid. Finally, it looks at the potential roadblocks—political and judicial, as well as economic—that may derail some of the provisions. But with nearly half the Act's provisions in force already, there is no time to lose in understanding how the Affordable Care Act affects U.S. health care providers and consumers today.

  • Explains health reform in easy-to-understand terms

  • Provides guidance on options for anyone buying health insurance, whether for family or employees

  • Details the impact on businesses, medical professionals, and insurers

  • Charts the potential impact of political opposition to the act

  • Explains who will pay for reform and where the cost savings lie—under both best and worst scenarios

What you'll learn

  • The provisions of the new health care law.

  • The options for families and individuals, and how to decide whether to keep existing insurance, switch to a different plan, or get new coverage at an exchange or co-op

  • The mandates for having insurance coverage and the penalties for failing to comply

  • New government subsidies and tax breaks for health care, and who qualifies for them

  • Options for businesses, and how employers can decide whether to keep existing plans, purchase plans through exchanges, or provide vouchers to employees

  • The impact of health care reform on hospitals, doctors, insurers, and patient care

  • The roadblocks and potholes on the way to reform and how the law may change in the years to come

Who this book is for

Health Care Reform Simplified is an excellent resource for people who make health care decisions for their families, or for managers who make decisions about insurance coverage for employees. Health care professionals and those working in the insurance industry will also find it a useful overview of the changes that have occurred and those yet to come.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Technical Reviewer
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: Overview: Health Care Reform Past and Future
    1. Quick History of Health Care Insurance
    2. World War II Spurs Insurance Growth
    3. Political Primer on Health Care Reform
    4. Health Care Enters the 2008 Presidential Campaign
    5. Washington Battles over Health Care Reform
    6. Health Care Reform Summary, Schedule
    7. Coming Next
  9. Chapter 2: Early Changes: Health Care Reform's First Ups, Downs
    1. Temporary Exchanges for People with High-Risk Conditions
    2. Expanded Plan Options in 2011 for High-Risk Exchanges
    3. New Insurance Guarantees for Children with Health Issues
    4. Young Adults Get Extension to Age 26 on Parents' Policies
    5. Insurance Rate Reviews Start; Some States Toughen Oversight
    6. Insurers Banned from Cutting and Capping Coverage
    7. Slowly Filling Medicare's Prescription Drug “Donut Hole”
    8. Health Care Reform Puts a “Sin Tax” on Tanning Services
    9. Big Tax Break for Small Businesses That Provide Insurance
    10. Coming Next
  10. Chapter 3: New Choices: Individual, Family Insurance Options
    1. Some Policies May Be “Grandfathered” Under New Law
    2. Insurance Exchanges Are Critical to Health Care Reform
    3. Wisconsin Prototype Offers Example of Insurance Exchange
    4. Individual Mandate Requirements and Penalties
    5. Premiums No Longer Tied to Pre-Existing Medical Conditions
    6. Rights to Appeal, Choose Doctor, and Preventive Care
    7. A Quick Definition of Health Care Reform's Tax Credit
    8. Government Rethinking Long-Term Care Provision
    9. Coming Next
  11. Chapter 4: Business Trends: Tackling Taxes, Mandates, Incentives
    1. Keeping Existing Plan Requires Complex Calculations
    2. Law Offers Small Businesses Relief from Big Insurance Costs
    3. Requirement for Coverage and Penalties for Not Doing So
    4. Small Businesses May Shop at Insurance Exchanges
    5. Early Retiree Reinsurance Program Accepts First Applicants
    6. New Law Creates Incentives for Employee Wellness Programs
    7. Coming Next
  12. Chapter 5: Insurance Shift: Law Changes Market Rules, Regulations
    1. Insurers' Medical Loss Ratio Proves Difficult to Pin Down
    2. Guaranteed Coverage for Everybody, Despite Everything
    3. New Law Requires Insurers to Limit Variations in Rates
    4. New Law Sets Minimum Coverage, Preventive Care Coverage
    5. Health Care Reform Cracks the Door for Insurance Co-Ops
    6. New Law Sparks Growth of Accountable Care Organizations
    7. Coming Next
  13. Chapter 6: New Medicine: Law Attacks Errors and Inefficiencies
    1. Attempting to Stop a Deadly Toll Taken by Medical Errors
    2. Health Care Law Tries to Lower Hospital Readmission Rates
    3. Fostering Better Coordination of Care, Communication
    4. “Medical Home” Shifts Focus from Procedures to Patients
    5. Doctors Debate Control of Accountable Care Organizations
    6. Doctor Shortages Predicted Along with Surge of Patients
    7. The Evidence for Evidence-Based Practice
    8. New Law Creates and Renovates Community Health Centers
    9. “Safety Net” Hospitals at Crossroads with Health Care Reform
    10. Coming Next
  14. Chapter 7: Medi-Growth : Medicaid, Medicare Poised to Expand
    1. Medicare Attempts to Improve Quality, Control Costs
    2. Law Expands Medicaid, Sets U.S. Standards for Eligibility
    3. New Support Encouraging Baby Boomers to “Age in Place”
    4. Coming Next
  15. Chapter 8: Info Overload: Law Brings Communication Challenges
    1. Only 1 in 8 Americans Proficient in Health Literacy
    2. Health Care Reform Brings New Sources of Information
    3. Law Requires Disclosure of Financial Ties with Doctors
    4. Health Care Law Requires Nutritional Labeling
    5. Coming Next
  16. Chapter 9: Who Pays: Health Care Reform to Cost $1.4 Trillion
    1. Medicare Tax Increase to Raise $210 Billion
    2. “Cadillac Insurance” Tax Starts to Gear Up in 2018
    3. Private Insurers to Pay Billions Annually in New Fees
    4. Drug Companies Start Paying New Fees in 2011
    5. New Tax for Medical Devices Begins in 2013
    6. Medicare Savings Estimate of Doubtful Accuracy
    7. Other Health Care Reform Revenue Sources
    8. Coming Next
  17. Chapter 10: War on Reform: New Law Faces Legal, Political Attacks
    1. Battle over Individual Mandate Heads to Supreme Court
    2. Republicans Attempt Repeal and Replacement
    3. Conclusion: Health Care Reform Certainty Is Uncertainty
  18. Bibliography
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Health Care Reform Simplified: Guide Your Family And Your Business Through Health Care Reform
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2011
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430236986