Week 5: EOC Health Care reform

On September 23, 2010 new reforms under the Affordable Care Act begin to bring to an end some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry. These reforms will give Americans new rights and benefits.

Some of the new benefits include: More kids will be able to get health coverage, limitations on care and patients will be able to access more services without cost-sharing. These new reforms will apply to all new health plans and to plans that are renewed. Many new benefits have already happened. Rebate checks for seniors have been sent out for those in the Medicare donut hole and tax credits for small business. More rights will be starting now and will continue to be put into effect through 2014.

Under 18 years 74,101 8,661 65,440 47,906 44,257 209 3,890 22,109

25 to 34 years 39,868 10,713 29,154 25,814 24,009 18,193 2,160 4,460

55 to 64 years 32,191 4,095 28,096 24,255 21,701 15,989 3,276 6,122

65 years and over 36,035 541 35,494 21,904 13,086 9,912 9,918 33,982

Native 259,545 34,380 225,165 182,447 160,116 82,218 24,524 72,653

Foreign-born 37,279 12,615 24,664 19,243 17,036 10,932 2,542 7,617

Naturalized citizen 14,538 2,384 12,154 9,562 8,321 5,672 1,415 4,100

Not a citizen 22,741 10,231 12,510 9,681 8,715 5,261 1,127 3,517

Northeast 54,139 6,648 47,491 38,790 34,621 17,965 4,696 14,706

Midwest 65,491 7,458 58,034 48,742 42,787 21,860 6,361 17,100

South 108,030 20,486 87,544 69,209 60,912 32,753 9,267 30,100

West 69,163 12,403 56,760 44,949 38,832 20,572 6,741 18,364

While Congress has actually taken little action on health care reform, there has been no shortage of discussion on Capitol Hill. This year alone Congress has considered more than 100 bills on health care that range from two pages to more than 200 pages.

Table 1Canadian Survey of Physicians:Average Weeks Waited by Patients (by Specialty)

B.C. N.B. Nfl. Man. N.S.

Plastic surgery 13.2 36.2 37.0 11.0 26.3

Gynecology 8.4 10.9 5.3 9.0 9.6

Ophthalmology 11.6 5.2 2.9 12.8 10.7

Otolaryngology 12.2 7.2 n/a 7.0 14.7

Generalsurgery 4.0 2.5 8.0 8.2 4.0

Neurosurgery 4.2 8.3 9.0 10.5 5.8

Orthopedic 15.8 14.6 18.5 20.6 19.7

Cardiology 14.0 10.0 42.6 14.7 26.0

Urology 8.3 13.2 5.0 6.7 7.1

Internalmedicine 5.5 4.5 2.2 3.3 2.0

http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032007/health/h01_001.htm

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/introduction/index.html

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1044