Main Points of the New Healthcare Reform Law for 2010

1. No more lifetime caps. Most people do realize this but there policy has a lifetime cap on how much the insurance company would pay out. The cap is generally in the millions. If you have a catastrophic injury requiring multiple expensive surgeries, you may reach this cap and everything else is owed to the DR out of pocket. This is a great added benefit, however with the added benefit there will be added cost. The insurance companies use this cap to keep insurance costs down, because they can calculate how much they can potential have to pay out. Without a cap the payout calculation would increase far beyond would the actual numbers might be and thus compellingly increasing the policy premium.

2. Young Adult provision. All young adults to remain on their parent’s policy until the age of 26, if they are no already covered through their own employer covered plan.

3. Preventative services must be offered with new plans. Most plans already offer this feature. It costs the insurance company less to keep you healthy, then to treat you when you get sick.

4. This is one some employers may not like. Providing space and time for a mother to nurse or “pump” milk for their baby during its first year. I have two kids; it took my wife over a half an hour to nurse our first child and less than 10 minutes to nurse our second child. At least the Government put in a hardship clause , employer with less than 50 employees who can show that nursing, pumping or providing space would cause the company undue hardship.

5. This is the one some employers may like, a tax credit on the premiums. Businesses with 25 or less employees can receive up to a 35% tax credit from the premiums. Not for profits regardless of size can receive up to a 25% tax credit. Of course there are caveats to obtaining the full tax credit, the average salary of the employees must be below 50k and the business must contribute at least 50% of the premium. As with all government tax breaks, this one also has a sliding scale, so as I mentioned earlier, “the max it 35%” it does not mean you are going to get it.

A complete run down of some of the hightlights that are to come is available on the governments website http://bit.ly/9wkFGT/