Being sick, with no access to health care, isn't being "free".
What patients want:
- An affordable source of care
- Protection from financial devastation
- Policies that won’t be overturned every election cycle
- Peace of mind knowing there will be no surprises next time a family member gets sick
- Choice of doctors, not a narrow network
How the ACA changed insurance
- Mandated that insurance companies could not deny coverage or charge higher rates for people with pre-existing conditions. They can charge higher rates based on age.
- Required preventive services with no co-pay for immunizations, cancer screenings, well baby and child visits
- Required all insurance to cover a basic set of services: doctor visits, emergency services, hospital stays, maternity care, mental health services, prescription drugs, rehab services, lab tests, as well as preventive and wellness services.
- Required all insurance companies to provide a Uniform Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC). This provision makes it easier to compare plans. It must show what limits, exclusions, and cost-sharing requirements are part of the plan.
- Mandated no lifetime cap on coverage.
- Allowed children to stay on their parents plan until age 26.
- Mandated that everyone buy insurance. Provided subsidies to those who could not afford it.
The improvements in prevention and benefits has expanded care, but it has also increased costs. Provisions in the ACA to cover these costs and keep premiums down have been caught in a political game of whack-a-mole that is undercover, ongoing, and subject to fierce lobbying.
The medical device tax has been repealed, a key source of funding for the ACA. The individual mandate has been made moot. In efforts to fight the ACA, politicians took money out of rate-stabilization funds, which were intended to keep premiums low. These and other actions behind the scenes have stripped away some of the financial funding for the law. The result is higher premiums for everyone else.
After the 2017 tax law eliminated the penalty for not buying insurance, the current administration has a case before the Supreme Court arguing that without the penalty for not buying insurance, the entire ACA should be declared invalid. The result of this ruling will impact millions of Americans.
Read more about the case here: Healthcare on the ballot
What’s next
Our representatives need to hear from us, not the lobbyists for big pharma and a profit-driven insurance industry. It is us, the patients, who are being pulled in a riptide while political games continue.
Let’s hope it’s not a race to the bottom for the lowest premiums only to discover that we aren’t covered in our moments of greatest need.