The Mid-Atlantic Regional Group
Blinded Veterans Association
Legislative News
May 19, 2010
For all BVA contacts, today
Senator Akaka released this news. Since earlier I sent out another alert on web
seminar on disabled and health care changes in the recent reforms, this news
helps confirm and remove the rumors about any negative impact on veterans not
being accurate in regards to the legislation.
CONGRESS PASSES VA HEALTH CARE CLARIFICATION BILL
Bill makes clear that VA health care recipients
can meet minimum coverage standard in health insurance reform law
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
The U.S. Senate passed legislation last night to clarify that VA health care
programs can meet the minimum coverage standard required by the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act. This includes the health care VA
provides to children with spina bifida born to veterans of the Vietnam War, to
some veterans who served in Korea during specified times, and to children of
women Vietnam veterans with certain birth defects. The bill passed the House of
Representatives last week, and now awaits the President’s consideration.
“This bill gives the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs the authority to ensure that veterans’ family
members who receive health care from VA will meet the health insurance reform
law’s minimum health care coverage requirement,” said
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii),
author of the Senate bill.
Under the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act, individuals must hold a minimum level of health care
coverage. The bill passed last night,
H.R. 5014, would provide the VA Secretary with the authority to designate VA
health care programs as meeting the minimum standard.
The original clarification bill
authored by Akaka, S. 3162, was
approved in the Senate on March 26. H.R. 5014 is the House companion to
Akaka’s bill.
Please see
below regarding health reform benefits for Americans with disabilities.
Health Reform for Americans with
Disabilities
The Affordable Care Act Gives
Americans with Disabilities Greater Control Over Their Own Health Care.
Greater
Choices for Americans with Disabilities
ü Expands
the Medicaid Program
- Expands
the Medicaid program to more Americans, including people with
disabilities.
ü New
Options for Long-Term Supports and Services
- Provides a
new, voluntary, self-insured insurance program (CLASS Act) that helps
families pay for the costs of long-term supports and services if a loved one
develops a disability.
- Creates
new options for states to provide home and community based services in
Medicaid, enabling more people with disabilities to access long-term
services in the setting they choose.
- Extends
the Money Follows the Person program and makes improvements to the Medicaid
Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) option.
ü
Eliminates Insurance Company Discrimination
- This year,
prohibits insurance companies from denying children coverage based on
pre-existing conditions. Going forward, the Act will prohibit insurance
companies from denying coverage or charging more to any person based on
their medical history, including genetic information.
- This year,
provides access to affordable insurance for uninsured Americans with
pre-existing conditions through a temporary, subsidized high-risk pool,
which will help protect them from medical bankruptcy. This high risk pool
is a stop-gap measure that will serve as a bridge to a reformed health
insurance marketplace.
ü More
Affordable Choices and Competition
- Creates
state-based health insurance Exchanges to provide families with the same
private insurance choices that the President and Members of Congress will
have, including multi-state plans to foster competition and increase
consumer choice.
ü One-Stop
Shopping
- Provides
standardized, easy-to-understand information through the Exchange on
different health insurance plans so Americans can easily compare health
plans to choose the quality, affordable option that is right for them.
ü Insurance
Security
- Ensures
that families always have guaranteed choices of quality, affordable health
insurance whether they lose their job, switch jobs, move, or get sick,
through creation of Exchanges.
ü Makes
Health Care Accessible to Everyone
- Provides
access to health insurance through Exchanges to those without job-based
coverage and provides premium tax credits to those who can’t afford
coverage, significantly increasing access to a choice of health insurance
plans for individuals with disabilities. This will enable individuals to
keep their jobs rather than giving up employment in order to receive
Medicaid benefits.
Lowering
Costs by Rewarding Quality and Cutting Waste
ü Insurance
Industry Reforms that Save Money
- This year,
eliminates all lifetime limits on how much insurance companies cover if
beneficiaries get sick and bans insurance companies from dropping people
from coverage when they get sick. The Act also restricts the use of annual
limits in all new plans and existing employer plans this year, until 2014
when all annual limits are prohibited.
- Going
forward, plans in the new Health Insurance Exchanges and all new plans will
have a cap on what insurance companies can require beneficiaries to pay in
out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-pays and deductibles.
- Supports
States starting in plan year 2011 in requiring health insurance companies to
submit justification for requested premium increases, and insurance
companies with excessive or unjustified premium exchanges may not be able to
participate in the new Exchanges.
- Cracks
down on excessive insurance overhead starting in 2011 by applying standards
to how much insurance companies can spend on non-medical costs, such as
bureaucracy, executive salaries, and marketing, and provides consumers a
rebate if non-medical costs are too high.
Assuring
Accessible, Quality, Affordable Health Care for People with Disabilities
ü
Preventive Care for Better Health
- This year,
requires new plans to cover prevention and wellness benefits at no charge to
American families by exempting these benefits from deductibles and other
cost-sharing requirements.
- Invests in
prevention and public health to encourage innovations in health care that
prevent illness and disease before they require more costly treatment.
People with disabilities are less likely to receive preventive care and are
more likely to be diagnosed with screenable cancers at a later stage.
- Improves
access to medical diagnostic equipment so people with disabilities can
receive routine preventive care.
ü Addresses
Health Disparities
- Moves
toward eliminating disparities by improving data collection on health
disparities for individuals with disabilities and improving training of
health providers.
ü Improve
Care for Chronic Disease
- Invests in
innovations such as medical homes and care coordination demonstrations in
Medicare and Medicaid to prevent disabilities from occurring and progressing
and to assist one in every 10 Americans who experience a major limitation in
activity because of a chronic condition.
Hopefully all
this information helps explain what is included and what is not in the health
care reform legislation changes.
Tom Zampieri
Blinded
Veterans Association Washington DC
BVA's Legislative Alerts Group
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