Certain preventive health care services are now mandated as part of Obamacare. By law, these benefits are "free" to the consumer in that your health insurance plan will not be allowed to charge a copay or deductible.
But they are not free. Doctors and labs have not suddenly decided to deliver health care services at no charge. The cost of these benefits is added to the premium you pay each month.
Premiums will rise by about 3%-5% to cover the additional cost of these benefits. The plan you have recently purchased may already have these benefits and the premium adjusted accordingly.
In addition to your routine annual exam, the new "free" benefits will include screening for alcohol abuse, high blood pressure, sexually transmitted disease, obesity, tobacco use and more. Some of the services are segregated by gender and age while others are universal.
These new benefits are retroactive to the date Obamacrap was signed in to law so you may receive a notice that your premiums are going to be adjusted upward retroactively. If so, not to worry, this is done to bring the plans into compliance with the new, higher benefits.
If you are looking for health insurance now you may encounter plans that have deductibles, copays or waiting periods for preventive care. Again, you should not worry as these plans will eventually be corrected to bring them into compliance once Washington decides to tell the health insurance companies how the benefits are to be administered.
In the interim you can refer to this nifty summary of mandated preventive care benefits as brought to you by the folks who gave us Obamacrap.
More surprises are on the way including children's health insurance under Obamacrap.
Posts
