Obama: Weekly Address: What Health Reform Will Deliver – This Year

Here are a few more points about how health insurance reform measures will benefit Americans this year: Hold Insurance Companies Accountable: * Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all new plans; * Prohibit rescissions of health insurance policies in all individual plans; * Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans; * Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs; * Establish a process for the annual review of unreasonable increases in premiums, requiring State insurance commissioners to work with the HHS Secretary and States. Protect Consumers: * Provide grants to States to support health insurance consumer assistance and ombudsman programs to help consumers; * Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions; * Require all insurance plans to use uniform coverage documents so consumers can make easy comparisons when shopping for health insurance; * Establish an internet portal to assist Americans in identifying coverage options; * Prohibit insurers from discriminating in favor of highly compensated employees by charging them lower premiums. Ensure Affordable Choices and Quality Care: * Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool; * Create a temporary re-insurance program for early retirees; * Require new plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26; * Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing; * Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage; * Facilitate administrative simplification to lower health system costs.