The New Health Law & Covered California™

Most young people feel like they have years of good health in the bank. They are, as a group, so unlikely to buy insurance that insurance companies dubbed them the young invincibles and in some cases gave up on trying to enroll them in health care plans.

Some young adults, inevitably, will be proven wrong in their optimistic evaluations of their health.

“We’re not invincible—no one’s invincible,” said California organizer Tamika Butler. It’s not that people of her generation don’t want insurance, Butler said, it’s that they can’t afford it.

Butler works for the Young Invincibles, an organization created in 2009 by two millennials who wanted to reclaim the term and advocate for health coverage for their generation.

Many advocates and experts wonder if the Affordable Care Act will actually make care more affordable for young people – or if the young will simply end up paying the price of lowering costs for everyone else. The “age-rating” provision of the ACA prevents insurers from charging an older client more than three times the amount they charge a younger client. In most states, the rate stands at 5 to 1. To make up for charging older people less, insurers are expected to start chargine younger people more once the provision goes into effect in 2014.

Right now, young people are generally benefiting from protective changes ushered in by Obama care.

Possibly the most popular provision of Obamacare was the expansion of dependent coverage so that young people can stay on their parents insurance until age 26. Even those who want to repeal the legislation want to keep that provision intact. As one of the first provisions enacted, it’s also one of the first indicators to be evaluated.

The data suggests the change was a success in increasing the number of Americans with insurance. “The total enrollment exceeded original expectations,” said Harvard assistant professor and senior advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services Benjamin Sommers.

More than 3 million young people gained insurance between September 2010 and December 2011 because of the change, Sommers found. In his analysis, youth of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds benefited from the provision.

“It’s hard to see whether it narrowed disparities,” Sommers said. “But we’ve really seen broad benefits in coverage.”

Those who it helped the most were single, male and out of school.

“The biggest gains tended to be in kinds of people who had fewer options,” Sommers said.

In the past, married young adults have had more health-care possibilities through a spouse, so the legislation helped to provide single young adults with another option through their parents. Women were also more likely to be insured, so Sommers said that the provision helped men catch up. Before the change, many insurers allowed young people to stay on their parent’s insurance while in college, so the provision also provided a new option for those no longer in school.

Sommers also found that young adults with poor health were most likely to get coverage in the first few months of the provision.

Because of the provision, 23-year-old Kurt Henlin was able to stay on his parents insurance after he graduated from Temple University last May. His mother has insurance through her job as an administrator at Bronx Community College.

The healthcare law’s $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending accounts will amount to a tax on older and sicker Americans.The central provisions of the Affordable Care Act require younger and healthier Americans to buy insurance policies that will, in essence, subsidize the healthcare of older and sicker Americans. But one of Obamacare’s hidden taxes — a new limit on contributions to health flexible spending accounts, or FSAs — will hit older and chronically ill individuals hardest.

As many as 1.5 million Californians are expected to gain Medi-Cal coverage over the next six years, thanks to provisions in the Affordable Care Act.

Answers to consumers’ frequently asked questions about the federal Affordable Care Act, which will be implemented in full on Jan. 1.

Q: I had colon cancer and have had trouble buying health insurance ever since. Under Obamacare, will insurance companies still be allowed to refuse me because of my medical history?

A: Finally, an Obamacare question with a simple answer, and the answer is NO.

Starting on January 1, health plans no longer can deny anyone coverage because of health status or previous diagnoses. Nor can they charge more because of pre-existing conditions. Period.

Q: What can health plans charge more for?

A: Thankfully, this is another pretty simple answer. Plans will be able to charge families more than individuals, and older people – who generally

Q: I had colon cancer and have had trouble buying health insurance ever since. Under Obamacare, will insurance companies still be allowed to refuse me because of my medical history?

A: Finally, an Obamacare question with a simple answer, and the answer is NO.

Starting on January 1, health plans no longer can deny anyone coverage because of health status or previous diagnoses. Nor can they charge more because of pre-existing conditions. Period.

Q: What can health plans charge more for?

Economist says people are surprised income guidelines go so high

A total of 237,310 San Diego County residents will qualify for a health insurance tax credit in 2014, according to a report last week by the nonprofit health advocacy group Families USA.

Beginning next year, nearly 5 million uninsured Californians will rapidly gain health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  This is wonderful news, especially for those who need it most– the 1.4 million newly eligible for Medical.

However, the reality is that coverage does not necessarily mean access to care.   Simply having insurance doesn’t guarantee Californians can actually receive attention if there is a shortage of caregivers, namely primary care physicians (PCPs).  Even with health care reform, California does not have enough of these doctors; this is partly due to the shortage of primary care physicians and the lure of higher pay in specialty practice. Medical students entering family practice medicine as a specialty is on the decrease as well.

Not to mention, clinics in rural and urban areas will receive a flood of millions of newly insured patients. Training physicians can take up to 10 years and frankly, patients can’t afford to wait.