A One Minute Summary of Obamacare

October 12, 2013

Most people are either for or against Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) without knowing much about what it is.

Let’s solve that in 1 minute.

The bullet points

Here are the basic bullets that everyone should know about the law:

It affects private insurers, public insurers, employers, and private citizens
If you already have insurance, as a private citizen, then it will only affect your coverage if your plan didn’t cover enough before, i.e. your provider may be required to offer more services as part of your coverage
The law requires providers to pay for many things that used to be optional, like child birth, prescription drugs, mental health checkups, etc.
The law also restricts providers’ ability to charge extra for certain kinds of recurring tasks, such as routine checkups, cancer screening, etc.
The law limits peoples’ yearly out-of-pocket fees such as copays for hospital visits
The law prohibits providers from dropping you for getting sick
The law prohibits providers from denying you coverage because you have a pre-existing condition
Your paycheck must now show how much your employer pays for your healthcare coverage
Starting in 2015 businesses with more than 50 people must provide healthcare coverage to full-time workers
For seniors, it’ll be easier and cheaper to get prescription drugs
For any family making less than $31,000 per year, free Mediccaid will be provided
Anyone without coverage (roughly 20%) is required to purchase insurance from the government site that provides the various private options (called the Exchange)
Providers can no longer place lifetime limits on your coverage

That’s my list, collected from a bunch of internet summaries. Hope it helps.