affordable care act

The Affordable Care Act Turns Three

Posted on 03/22/2013 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Personal Health | PoliticsThe Affordable Care Act is three years old. So what does that mean? What has happened to improve health care over the past few years? Let’s take a quick look: People with Medicare now get a 52.5% discount on brand-name drugs and a 21% discount on generics. People are already seeing a lot of savings. Medicare has a free initial checkup and a free yearly wellness checkup. Medicare also covers preventive care for free. For people with insurance, free preventive …

Applying for Obama Health Care Plan Not Easy

Posted on 03/13/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes. The government’s draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. An outline of the online version has 21 steps, some with additional questions. Seven months before the Oct. 1 start of enrollment season for millions of uninsured Americans, the idea that getting health insurance could be as easy as shopping online …

Florida to Expand Medicaid Under Health Overhaul

Posted on 02/21/2013 by | General News | Comments

PoliticsBy Gary Fineout and Kelli Kennedy of The Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Rick Scott announced plans Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 900,000 more people under the federal health overhaul, a surprise decision from the vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s plan. Scott said he will ask the Legislature to expand the program under a bill that would expire in three years, after which it would require renewed legislative support. He’s the seventh Republican governor so …

Insurance Will Have to Pay for More Preventive Care

Posted on 02/20/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The new health law requires that most insurance plans cover all costs for preventive care, including colon cancer screening. But it didn’t turn out to be that simple. Many patients ended up with a bill when the doctor performing the colonoscopy removed precancerous growths known as polyps. Why the bill? Because a preventive screening had turned into a procedure. Now the Obama administration is trying to straighten out the confusion: …

Feds to Run Insurance Marketplaces in Half the States

Posted on 02/18/2013 by | Health | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsBy Phil Galewitz and Alvin Tran, Staff Writers, Kaiser Health News It’s official. The Obama administration will be running new health insurance marketplaces in half the states — including the major population centers of Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. The federal government had hoped more states this week would agree to form a partnership exchange — the deadline to apply was Friday — but the offer was largely rebuffed. New Jersey, Ohio and Florida, several of the biggest states that had not …

New Report Shows the Savings in the Closing Doughtnut Hole

Posted on 02/8/2013 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Personal HealthGood news everyone! There’s a new report that shows lots of people saving good cash on prescription drugs because of the Affordable Care Act. The Health and Human Services department reports that seniors have saved around $5.7 billion since January of 2011. This is largely due to the closing of the doughnut hole. While everyone who qualifies saves money, it really benefited those with chronic conditions. HHS has projected that savings per Medicare beneficiary will be about $5,000 through the …

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