Health

A Brief Message from the American Red Cross

Affordable Care Act Press Release

"Starting on September 23rd, all Americans with private health insurance plans will get some new consumer protections. For example, insurance companies will be prohibited from putting lifetime limits on your coverage and they'll no longer be able to cancel your insurance when you get sick just by finding an error in your paperwork. So no matter what kind of health insurance you have, you're going to have a little more security and stability this fall.

But as we designed this law, we knew that many Americans liked their insurance plan. They wanted more insurance choices, but they also wanted one of those choices to be keeping the plan they're used to. So to help these Americans keep their coverage, we're announcing a new rule today that will allow health plans that existed on March 23rd to make routine changes and while remaining exempt from some of the other new provisions in the Affordable Care Act."

See the entire speech by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

Health Care Reform Has Passed!

You can get a full summary of the changes here.

This chart from page 3 of the summary shows how you can expect to be covered.  The numbers down the left are percentages of the Federal Poverty Level.  (For reference, as of 2009, the Federal Poverty Level for a 4-person family is an income of $22,050 or less a year.)