Emily, Melissa and I went to a great seminar over the weekend in Pittsburgh.  One of the seminars was Obamacare 101.  While we may be looking at it from the angle of a practitioner, I do also have insurance personally and need to know how all of this is going to be affected.  We also needed to know exactly when all of these changes were going to be put in place.

We have all heard that this was passed, however, the timeline is looking more like January 2014 for us to see any changes.  One of the aspects that we are excited about is the non exclusion of “pre-existing conditions”.  I’m sure that you’ve all received the vaguely asked questions on a form from your insurance carrier where they are asking for more information about your injury.  What they are really asking is “Should someone other than us be responsible for paying for this.”  Their favorite is to play a little game of “Gotcha”, so make sure that you’re answering these to the best of your ability.  Also, please make sure you send them back.  It might seem like a silly form, however, if they don’t receive it from you, they stop paying on your claims.

But, I digress, thankfully these forms shouldn’t be an issue in the near future.   Here are some points about Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act:

-This is NOT replacing Medicare, Mainecare or private insurance.  It’s working with private insurance to regulate insurance practices.  These changes actually wouldn’t work if there were no private insurance companies.

-This is going to put a cap on what insurance companies can charge for premiums.  Considering many of us have seen higher premiums with less coverage, this will be a great change!

– People can select from free or low cost insurance coverage or opt for a higher priced plan from private health insurance.  One thing to keep in mind once these come out, pay close attention to what is and is not covered by the choice that you choose (make sure Chiropractic is on there!!).

 

I’m going to elaborate more on this topic in my next post.  Until then, if you have questions, please call the office or write us on Facebook!!