Legal Commentary

New Health Insurance Changes Take Effect

By Jeralyn

The first wave of health insurance changes take effect today. Which ones?

• No denial of children based on pre-existing conditions
• No more lifetime benefit limits
• No canceling policies of very sick and benefit-needy peoplefor technical errors on their application
• Coverage of kids up to age 26 on their parent policies
• No co-pays on some preventive procedures, including colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations
• Allowing those on new plans to keep their own doctors and to appeal reimbursement decisions to a third party.

One area of immediate concern: In many states, insurance companies will stop offering child-only policies immeidately. "Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Cigna Corp., are among the companies that plan to halt all or part of their child-only policy sales." More here.

Here's the new White House website explaining the law, the changes and the benefits.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 23, 2010 (boomark / email).