The Affordable Care Act: Making Us a Healthier Nation

One of the most important things I’ve worked on in my legislative career has been expanding affordable, quality health care to all Americans. It’s been two years since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Since then, the law has provided health insurance to millions more Americans, lowered health care costs, while also creating jobs, strengthening the middle class, and reducing the deficit.

Another benefit of the law has put cash rebates into the hands of millions of Americans. The law now requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of your insurance premiums on direct health care services, rather than advertising and overhead. This is known as the 80/20 rule.

If an insurer falls short of spending 80 percent on health care services, they must rebate you the difference. That’s why more than $123 million in rebates from insurance companies have been sent to 1.2 million Floridians.

These rebate checks mean a lot to South Florida families, and the 80/20 rule is a great example of how the Affordable Care Act provides an insurance watchdog for you, the consumer, an advocate for improved care and reduced insurance costs.

August also marks a particular victory for women’s health care. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, some 47 million women will now be able to get preventative services that they couldn’t afford before this rule went into effect. Any new insurance policies sold to individuals or employers must cover contraception without a co-pay as part of a larger package of mandatory co-pay-free women’s preventive care benefits. Insurance plans that have already been purchased will have to start offering no-co-pay contraception when they renew.

Some of the new preventative services now available with no co-pay include annual wellness visits, FDA-approved birth control, domestic violence screenings and counseling, breastfeeding support, HPV DNA testing for women 30 or older, HIV and sexually transmitted infections screenings, and gestational diabetes screenings that help protect pregnant women from one of the most serious pregnancy-related diseases.

Too often, women put their families’ health care before their own, especially when it comes to preventative care. Thanks to this new benefit in the Affordable Care Act, women can get the regular checkups and screenings that are so important to staying healthy without having to worry about how much it will affect the family budget.

Insurance rebate checks, no co-pay annual wellness visits, and the phase out of the prescription drug donut hole for seniors on Medicare are just a few of the many tangible benefits you will see from the Affordable Care Act as we work to fully implement all phases of the law over the next few years. Most importantly, though, the Affordable Care Act will provide greater access to affordable health care for millions of uninsured Americans, making us a healthier and more prosperous nation.