July 14, 2010 -- A variety of preventive services, from immunizations to colonoscopies, is due to be covered without cost to consumers under new insurance plans as part of the health care reform bill.
The new provisions were announced Wednesday afternoon by first lady Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Under the new rules, if you enroll in a new health plan on or after Sept. 23, 2010, the plan must provide recommended preventive care services without cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles.
Details of the provisions were provided at a news teleconference by Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House director of health care reform, and Stephanie Cutter, assistant to the president for special projects.
"Starting on Sept. 23, all new plans have to cover a comprehensive range of preventive services'' recommended by doctors and other experts, without out-of-pocket costs, DeParle said.
Preventive Care: What's Covered?
Depending on the health plan type and such factors as your age, preventive care is expected to include such services as:
Blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol tests
Cancer screenings
Counseling on smoking cessation, weight loss, healthy eating, depression treatments, and reduction of alcohol use
Vaccines for measles, polio, meningitis, and HPV (human papilloma virus)
Shots for flu and pneumonia prevention
Screening, vaccines, and counseling for healthy pregnancies
Well-baby and well-child visits up to the age of 21, as well as vision and hearing, developmental assessments, and body mass index (BMI) screenings for obesity
Mammograms for women over age 40
Pap smears for cervical cancer prevention
Colon cancer screening tests for adults over age 50
Preventive Care: The Impact
The new regulations represent a fundamental shift in how health care is addressed, DeParle says. "We are shifting form health care coverage meaning coverage for the sick to meaning coverage to keep you well."
The aim, she says, is "to create a healthier country."
''Chronic disease such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and others are responsible for seven of 10 deaths among American each year and account for 75% of the nation's health care spending," Cutter says.
The co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs to help prevent these problems are a stumbling block, Cutter and DeParle say. For instance, Cutter says, "12% of children have not had a doctor's visit within the last year and receive recommended care less than half the time."
Over time, between today and 2013, the new preventive care provisions will help an estimated 88 million Americans get preventive care, including those in group and individual plans, according to government estimates. Under many large employer plans, these services have been covered for some time.
Preventive Care: Consumer Advice
What to do next? ''Individuals should check with their employers and their insurance policy about what is covered under those plans," Cutter says. "When the plans turn over to a new one,'' says Cutter, the new covered preventive services provisions will take effect.
Meanwhile, consumers can check out www.healthcare.gov, type in a health plan, and see if preventive care is covered.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20100714/new-insurance-rules-free-preventive-health-care?src=RSS_PUBLIC
nothing is free
There is not one adult in the WH is there?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And being fat, drunk and depressed to get one would be a hell of a life.
This is rather selfish of the Whitehouse to limit the free goodies to just preventative health care. Why don’t they mandate a free car too? Or do they not care about poor people who drive dangerous old wrecks?
The word “free,” of course, is code for monies taken at gun point by President Hussein ‘Nikolai Lenin’ Obama to hand around to his voter base - the AWTHO, or Americans With Their Hands Out.
But what if I don’t want a government appointed nanny?
There. Fixed it.
People who can afford to pay $100 a month to have the latest iPhone won't have to pay one thin dime for something that could save their life, but the rest of us will have to pay it for them?
You can't live without food, so using the same logic as the Rats, Food should be “free” too. Same with Water or the Double Mocha at Starbucks that the people just can't live without I guess.
They’re just going to raise the cost of healthcare plans all the way across the board.
Just what I'd expect them to think and say, and just what I'd expect from someone who has no real understanding about health care. People in the US are not obese because they don't get free counseling. They don't continue to smoke because it's too expensive to talk to someone about it. Vaccines are already fairly easy to get for free if you can't afford them. Mammograms etc. are great, but have nothing to do with preventing ‘chronic disease’.
You sick people, just go f*cking die.
Any federal version of health care is unconstitutional since Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution does not specifically list regulating health care as an enumerated power! The people are not bound to comply with an unconstitutional act and as Americans are duty bound to uphold and defend the Constitution by openly defying these wholly unconstitutional acts!
“Yeah, my son is coughing all the time and I need to prevent that. It’s free, right?”
It may be free to you but somebody, somewhere is paying for it.
I am doing my best to see that I am not the one paying for it.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)