This year, President Obama and a Democratic-led Congress have:
ALLOWED EXTENDED COVERAGE UNTIL AGE 26 THROUGH YOUR PARENTS: Reform allows you to
stay on your parents’ health care plans until your 26th birthday (PDF). Between now and 2014, this only applies if your employer doesn’t offer you coverage. Beginning in 2014, it applies to all young people, even if you get insurance through your job. This will help to cover the one in three young adults who are uninsured.
LOWERED YOUR COSTS WITH FREE PREVENTATIVE CARE FOR BETTER HEALTH: Reform means
free preventive care to all people insured under new plans (PDF), and invests in preventing illness and disease instead of just treating them when it’s too late and costs more. Simple prevention can stop a small health problem from getting worse as you get older.
GIVEN YOU NEW PATIENTS’ RIGHTS THAT SAVE YOU MONEY: This year, reform
eliminates lifetime limits on how much insurance companies cover if you get sick, and tightly restricts yearly limits (PDF). In 2014, reform caps what insurance companies can force you to pay in co‐pays & deductibles, bans "gender rating" that allows women to be charged more for the same coverage, and bans new group plans from having eligibility requirements that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees—who tend not be younger workers.
GIVEN YOU SECURITY THAT YOUR HEALTH CARE IS NOT TIED TO A JOB: Reform means affordable health insurance is available to those without job‐based coverage, starting in 2014, and
provides substantial premium assistance (PDF) to those who still can’t afford it. Young adults are just starting jobs and careers, and often don’t have access to job‐based coverage. Even when they do, they often can’t afford health insurance—or must endure a waiting period as a new employee.
ENSURE YOU HAVE HEALTH CARE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST – WHEN YOU'RE SICK: You can no longer be dropped from your plan if you get sick. If you have a “pre‐existing condition,”
beginning in 2014, you can no longer be denied coverage or charged higher rates (PDF) —and between now and 2014, you can enter an interim high‐risk pool to get insurance. This year, discrimination is banned for children under age 19 who have pre-existing conditions.
PROVIDED YOU A CHOICE OF COMPETITIVE PRICES AND PLANS: Reform creates
Health Insurance Exchanges, or marketplaces (PDF), you can shop in if you don’t get insurance through your job. Starting in 2014, you get the benefits of group purchasing power like big businesses have.7
MADE IT EASY WITH ONE-STOP SHOPPING: Insurance "Exchanges" or marketplaces will allow you to
simply and easily compare prices and health plans online (PDF) and choose what’s right for you. The typical young adult risks losing coverage when you change jobs, move, or hold a part‐time or temporary job. Under reform, it doesn’t matter.
PAID FOR REFORM SO YOUR GENERATION’S NOT STUCK WITH THE BILL: Health insurance reform is actually
projected to lower the deficit by $1.3 trillion (PDF) over the next two decades. It lowers health care costs over the long term—so it makes sense it lowers the cost to taxpayers.
