Independent Living Atlanta & Affordable Care Act

13 Jul Independent Living Atlanta & Affordable Care Act

Late June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act that was initially introduced
by President Obama around 2 years ago. The Supreme Court’s decision is regarded as a victory for
individuals and small business owners who have been subject to extremely high health insurance
premiums for many decades.

This act will completely change the meaning of healthcare insurance in the U.S. With the Affordable
Care Act, not only will individuals be able to afford health care insurance, but small business owners will
be able to offer it to their employees as well. Therefore, small businesses with 50 or more employees
will be required to provide health insurance under this act.

Currently, there are 250 million Americans who already have health insurance. Of these, 54 million have
private health insurance. A staggering 30 million Americans still do not have health insurance. With the
Affordable Care Act, by 2014 every state will create a number of affordable medical insurance plans that
will be affordable by everyone. Citizens who cannot afford to pay the premium will be given credit to
pay for it.

However, this Act has limited the expansion of the Medicaid provisions. States will have the power to
decide how and when to expand their Medicaid programs, if at all. Independent Living Atlanta and other
similar programs can flourish under the provisions of this act.

By August this year 13 million people will receive a rebate on their health insurance plans. This
is because their health insurance companies failed to spend 80% of their premiums on quality
improvement and patient care, which is a requirement by the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR). Instead they
spent a huge part of the premiums on administrative expenses.

With the Affordable Care Act, every insurance company will have to adhere to certain requirements.
Some of the most obvious ones that concern the public are:

• An insurance company cannot impose lifetime limits on the amount of care you receive.
• There can be no discrimination against children or adults suffering from preexisting conditions.
• Insurance companies can no longer drop coverage if a client gets sick.
• Insurance companies cannot jack up premiums without prior information to the client and a
• solid reason.
• Free preventive care like checkups and mammograms will be provided for free under every
• health care plan.

Another aspect of the Affordable Care Act is that young adults under the age of 26 will be covered under
their parent’s health care plan. This has already helped 6 million young adults in the U.S. On the other
hand, seniors will also receive discounts on prescription drugs. This has saved 5 million senior citizens

around $600 each. Independent Living Atlanta can be expected to be more affordable for seniors.

As far as the Supreme Court’s ruling is concerned, it enjoys majority support from the Democrats and
some support from the Republicans. A voting on July 11, in the House of Representatives will decide
if they want to apply for a full repeal. Even in that case, there is still no surety that the U.S. Senate will
support the repeal as well.