Also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), this act:
- Decreases costs to seniors on Medicare by closing the prescription drug coverage gap (known as the “Doughnut Hole”) by 2012. Also decreases costs by reducing prescription drug costs in general for seniors
- Provides for free annual wellness visits and preventive services
- Improves private market reforms including ending lifetime and most annual limits for health insurance coverage, increases transparency about how insurers use consumers’ premium dollars and eliminates discrimination by insurers based on an individual’s pre-existing conditions
- Strengthens the U.S. safety-net and public health benefits programs, including investments in primary care provider training and placements, expansion of public health coverage to more low-income Americans and investments in community health centers.
- Creates new insurance marketplaces in each state, known as Exchanges. These competitive marketplaces will provide individuals and small businesses protections when buying their insurance, including defining what services plans have to cover so people can make an apples-to-apples comparison of plans when shopping. The exchanges will also help lower and middle class Americans without insurance cover the costs of their insurance with federal subsidies. Colorado Exchange will offer guides to assist consumers.
- Helps young adults access health insurance coverage by allowing them to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.
- Invests in projects and programs to reduce wasteful spending and fraud in the nation’s public programs, including Medicaid and Medicare.
- Provides help to small businesses with lower income employees in the form of a tax credit for those who provide insurance to their employees.
