The Congressional Budget estimates the new health bill will reduce the deficit by more than $140 billion over billion over the next ten years, and $1.2 trillion over the following ten years. The bill is supposed to ensure that people’s premiums won’t skyrocket like they’ve been doing for the last decade, and will keep them much lower than if there had been no reform.
It’s too soon to know whether this legislation will slow the increase in health insurance premiums, but leading economists hope that it will. One of the most significant provisions will allow parents to keep their children on their insurance until the age of 26, so that they won’t have to buy more expensive coverage on their own.
They also aim to control expenditures on a national level in a bundled payment model, and simplify how people pay for their health care. People won’t have to pay their primary care physician, surgeon or physical therapist separately. It will be similar to the way some companies that now bundle cable TV, Internet and phone services.
The bill is also supposed to encourage the expansion of Accountable Care Organizations, which will help primary care physicians coordinate with the neurologist, who will work with the cardiologist, who will work with the hospital- working together to help reduce costs. People will have better access to preventive care and early treatment in the hope that we can reduce the number of trips to the costly emergency rooms.
It will probably take years for this program to reach the status desired, and this legislation will have to take every action proposed by the leading economists to rein in the costs and control the medical expenditures. Premiums will probably not decrease any time soon, but hopefully the public will see the improvements in time. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Helen L. Price
(Excerpts from the Mail Tribune)
Tags: Helen L Price
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