BY Aline Reynolds
The new health reform bill, which President Obama signed into law on March 23, got high marks at a special health care forum held by Community Board 1 and co-organized by District 8 U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler on Monday evening.
Pat Moore, who chairs C.B. 1’s Quality of Life Committee, welcomed speakers Jaime Torres, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Jorge Silva-Puras, Regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration; and Lois Aronstein, New York State Director of AARP, an advocacy group that promotes legislation for Americans ages 50 and over.
“We’d like to know what this new law means for the self-employed, the uninsured, the retirees and the small-business owners among us,” she said, before presenting the officials.
The new health care bill will make medication more affordable for Americans on Medicare, who live in constant fear of the “doughnut hole,” which obliges them to pay out-of-pocket for drugs that exceed an annual limit – currently $2,830 – unless the bills rise above $4,500. At that point, Medicare kicks in again.
“Many people have had to decide between [paying for] health and education. I’ve seen people lose a leg because they couldn’t afford antibiotics,” commented Torres.
Starting next year, seniors will enjoy a 50 percent reduction in the prices of name-brand drugs, with more moderate price cuts for generic medications. Additional reductions after that will close the doughnut hole in ten years. Seniors who find themselves in the doughnut hole this year will receive a one-time payment of $250.
To make insurance more affordable for the rest of the population, subsidies will be provided to families and individuals with yearly incomes up to four times the national poverty level. Americans will be required to purchase insurance starting in 2014, when most of the uninsured, with a few exceptions, will start to be fined.
Medicaid will now be available for households that generate an income of up to 133 percent of the poverty level.
“Forty-five thousand Americans die per year because of the lack of health insurance today – this law will save most of those lives,” said Nadler.
The House member described the reform bill as “beginning to catch up to Bismarck,” referring to the late-19th- century German chancellor who implemented a successful national health care system. “It’s a tremendous improvement and puts us on the path to realizing the goal” of safe and affordable health care.
The new law will eliminate lifetime caps on the amount of insurance a person can have and do other things to “ensure that nobody goes broke,” said Nadler.
Those who are self-employed or unemployed, and don’t have insurance, will be now be able to afford it. The reform has created a state-regulated, transparent system called an “exchange,” a marketplace that the government will set up by 2014 to provide competition and choice among health insurance companies and policies. Consumers who opt in the exchange system will be able to compare benefits and costs of health care plans.
Moore, who is unemployed, independently purchases her health insurance from Atlantis Health. “The major thing is that, now, I’ll be part of a larger network, since everyone in the country is required to purchase insurance according to the reform,” she said. She hopes that, as insurance companies become more competitive, they’ll start to provide better and more reasonably priced plans.
Children with pre-existing medical conditions can no longer be denied coverage, and as of 2014, the same rule will apply to adults.
Small businesses also profit from the bill. Under the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 4 million small businesses around the country could qualify for tax credits that would give them an incentive to offer health insurance to their employees. The tax credit will provide a total of $40 billion in relief for small firms over the next 10 years.
Nadler pointed out a caveat in the health bill, which is that it doesn’t factor in higher-cost areas such as New York. Nothing is immediately on the table to solve this problem, according to Nadler’s office.
Moore was pleased with the turnout at the forum. “It was pretty successful, considering we pulled the event together in three weeks,” she said.
She encouraged the Downtown community to e-mail any unanswered questions about the reform bill to C.B. 1, which will forward on the question to Congressman Nadler’s office. Or e-mail Yume Kitasei, Community Liaison, at YKitasei@cb.nyc.gov.
