VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN CONFERENCE CALL

 

September 23, 2010

 

We were invited to participate in a conference call concerning health care for seniors.  Vice President Joe Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and John Blum Director of Medicare facilitated this discussion.  The purpose of the call was to provide data to show how the Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform Program) helps seniors on Medicare by lowering the cost of prescription drugs and providing free preventative benefits in Medicare as of January 1, 2011. They also discussed the new Patient's Bill of Rights provisions which will kick in on September 23rd, six months after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Vice President Biden spoke to us for approximately 45 minutes concerning some of the changes listed below that may effect you as of September 23, 2010:

Key September 23 provisions include:
 
  • No co-pay or deductible for preventive care under new insurance plans;
  • No lifetime limits on coverage and greater restriction on insurers' use of annual limits;
  • No dropping insurance coverage when patients get sick;
  • Extended dependent coverage for young people up to age 26; and
  • No coverage denial for children with pre-existing conditions.

 

Other points of interest for health care are:

Medicare | will have better coverage with lower cost.

Advantage Plans will continue | VP Biden advised Medicare Advantage Plans enrollments have increased while cost have gone down approximately 1%.

Donut Hole | we were told the "Donut Hole will eventually be eliminated and as of this date 1,200,000 seniors who have reached the "Donut Hole" have received a $250.00 check to help them with this expense.  January 1, 2011, seniors who fall into the "Donut Hole" will receive a 50% discount on all prescriptions.

***GMNRA/OTHCP neither supports or opposes these changes.  We are providing this information for your individual review as it effects you and your family.  To obtain more information about the new health care laws you can click this link: www.medicare.gov .  Additional information about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act can be found at this link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/728468

We hope to participate in future conference calls with the White House and this administrations personnel and we will post the results on the web site.

GM National Retiree Association
Over The Hill Car People.com

 

***We believe the above information is correct, but do not guarantee 100% accuracy as this was posted from the best of our recollection of a phone conference call.  We did not receive any written details.

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