Some of the many provisions of the stimulus bill enacted by the U.S. Congress last Friday, and signed into law yesterday by the President, have potentially great effects on Health Insurance.
1. Medicaid, a shared Federal-State Health Insurance program for qualifying poor people, in blunt and basic terms, will continue with certainty. "States" reportedly were likely to cut their contributions to Medicaid entirely. That would have required the States to refuse to participate in the Medicaid expense-matching program, as a matter of law. To say again,
reportedly Medicaid Health Insurance Coverage wlll now instead continue to
be offered to persons who qualify for it, persons who are almost certainly the ones who are most in need of it, particularly during the Credit Collapse.
2. COBRA, the Federal Law mandating an opportunity for fired Employees to continue their Employer-based Health Insurance Coverage despite losing their jobs, but at greatly increased Health Insurance Premiums, is the focus of two (2) results of the bill: One, the Federal Government will subsidize a reported 65% of the COBRA cost, and Two, the Federal Government will do so for up to 9 months.
3. Finally, funding is made available "to digitize medical records and link up doctors and hospitals with information technology." Privacy of medical records on paper has received attention in existing laws. Privacy of electronic medical records receives attention in the new Act.
Other provisions may do what they were designed to do. These are three major changes to Health Insurance in the Act, summarized also by a reporter who covers Health for a living: Robert Pear, "Health/More Money for Medicaid and the Jobless," reported with David M.Herszenhorn, "A Smaller, Faster Stimulus Plan, But Still With a Lot of Money" p. A11, col. 1 (New York Times Nat'l Ed., Saturday, February 14, 2009).
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