Experts analyze health reform bill

The health care reform bill President Barack Obama signed into law yesterday is a daunting… The health care reform bill President Barack Obama signed into law yesterday is a daunting document, to say the least.

The law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will require most people to have health insurance by 2014.

Under the law, about 32 million more people will have health insurance coverage by 2019.

To help sort through the particulars of the law, The Pitt News sat in on a conference call hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that studies health issues.

Representatives from the foundation said one of the most significant aspects of the law is a provision that will allow young adults across the nation to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26.

Bianca DiJulio, a principal policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Jennifer Tolbert, the associate director of the foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured explained the new terms.

What qualifications do students have to meet to stay on their parents’ health insurance? Will the employer issuing insurance decide if an “adult child” can stay on their parents’ insurance?

Tolbert: I don’t believe it’s the employer who limits who qualifies, but the interpretation of the regulation specifying who would qualify as a dependent [and thus be able to stay on their parents’ insurance] will be spelled out in regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I think that if an employer currently offers a dependent coverage … they can continue offering dependent coverage. It’s unclear whether they have to be a full-time student. The only indication I have is that there was a privilege that said [young adults] had to be unmarried; that was removed. As far as we know, a dependent no longer has to be unmarried. There is no other specification as to who qualifies as an adult child.

Do you know when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will issue those regulations?

Tolbert: The timeline for the provision is six months within enactment. Hopefully, any regulations will be issued prior to that provision going into effect. There may be something coming from the administration soon. Nothing has been issued yet.

What about adults who have, because of their age, already been kicked off their parents’ health insurance?

Tolbert: If they meet the new requirements, they will be able to get back on. The regulations are going to specify who qualifies as a dependent. If, when those rules go into effect six months from now, they meet the requirements, they would be able to go back on the policy. It’s not clear whether they have to live with their parents to get those.

Who will pay for young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plans?

Tolbert: The way these policies work now is that the premiums are shared between the individual and their employer, and so for cases in which the coverage was extended to these adult children, the premium would be shared between the employer and the employee.

Suddenly the family is now growing. How do you think that will pan out for the nation?

DiJulio: I don’t think we know exactly how the cost of the plans will be structured, but you’re right in that employers have different types of coverage and their contributions to that coverage varies. We’re going to have to kind of wait and see how that all comes out.

Tolbert: These young adults, by and large, are a fairly low-cost population, so under a situation in which there is a mandate [to have health care], which kicks in 2014, everyone will be coming into the pool, including those very healthy young adults. This is a relatively low-cost population overall.

What will happen to people who already have coverage from their employer?

Tolbert: I think it’s safe to say that for most people with employer coverage, they’re not likely to see much of a change in their policy.

What about people who use flexible spending accounts to help with their insurance coverage?

Tolbert: Beginning in 2013, the amount of money that people can set aside in a flex spending account will be limited to $2,500 per year. That is a reduction from the existing limit today, although unfortunately I don’t know what the existing limit is today.

Beginning in 2011, people will no longer be able to … use them for over the counter drugs … without a doctor’s prescription.