Survey: Many Doctors Still Concerned About Health-Care Reform
Americans Weigh In on Health-Care Reform
Health-Care Reform: What It Means to You
According to past surveys, 36 percent of Americans have tried to purchase health insurance but have either been denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions or were not able to afford the rate of health insurance quoted to them. Insurance companies can also limit insurance benefits based on a customer’s pre-existing condition.
Because of the PPACA, some measures have already been taken to improve health care. For instance, insurers can no longer limit an applicant’s lifetime coverage to a fixed dollar amount or take away coverage because of a mistake on an application. Also, young adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ insurance plan if they lack access to job-based insurance of their own. Insurers cannot deny coverage to children because they have a pre-existing condition.
A program called the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) is also helping out Americans until 2014 when the PPACA is scheduled to go into effect. The PCIP is a program that provides private insurance to those who suffer from pre-existing conditions and lack health care coverage.
There are also programs such as the Foundation for Health Coverage Education which can help people determine public or private insurance eligibility.
According to Phil Lebherz, founding director for the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, if the PPACA is repealed, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of repealing the act Wednesday, there is still hope out there for those who are uninsured.
“All hospitals take care of all emergency cases whether patients can pay or not,” explains Lebherz. “All people have access to care through emergency rooms.” The uninsured still use the emergency room for their main source of health care, he adds.
Lebherz believes that one problem lies with the method in which physicians are reimbursed for their services through government-funded programs such as Medicaid. “These reimbursements are for a small amount of the actual costs,” he says, with some medical establishments only getting reimbursed for 9 percent of their actual costs per patient visit.