First Health Care Provisions Take Effect: A Resource Guide

September 29, 2010

by Carlos Macías

We all remember the political showdown between Democrats and Republicans on health care reform 6 months ago. In a tight vote of 219 to 212 on March 21, the House of Representatives approved the controversial legislation. On March 23, President Obama signed H. R. 3590, better known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and it became the law of the land.

Six months later, new regulations for health insurance companies and new rights for consumers are taking effect. Remember, this law affects almost every one living in this country now and for generations to come. So it is important for you to know how this new set of regulations affects you, your family, and your business. The following is a run down of the provisions:

Measures affecting all insurance plans:

• Young adults up to the age of 26 can remain on or return to their parents’ health insurance.
• Insurance companies cannot cancel your policy without proving fraud. This means that a mistake made on your application by you or your employer is no longer ground to terminate your coverage.
• No more lifetime limits on benefits. If your coverage was dropped because you reached your plan’s limit, you will have the option to rejoin the plan as soon as the new enrollment period for the plan begins (usually at the beginning of each calendar year).
• Plans cannot deny payment or give you a hard time for any out-of-network emergency room visits.

Changes for all new and renewed health insurance plans that take effect after September 23rd, but not for “grandfathered” plans: (Grandfathered plans refers to insurance plans purchased before September 23)

• Children with pre-existent conditions like asthma cannot be denied benefits (up to the age of 19).
• Limits on annual spending costs will gradually disappear over the next three years.
• Insurers must offer free health screenings, vaccinations, and preventive services to detect diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol among others.

Consumers also earned new rights:

• Now you can challenge any coverage rejections or denials on new plans only (not grandfathered).
• Patients will be able to appeal any denial and the health care provider must explain in a clear manner how to proceed.
• All new plans are now required to allow appeals to an external independent reviewer.
• You no longer need a referral to choose a pediatrician or OB/GYN specialist. Also, you must be able to handpick your primary care doctor within your plan’s network.
• If you have been uninsured for six months and have a pre-existent condition, you are now able to apply for a pre-existent condition insurance plan.

For small business owners with up to 25 employees, tax credits are now available to help them purchase insurance benefits for their workers making up to $50,000 per year.

In the year 2014, a new insurance marketplace for health plans will start operating in each state. Also, new tax incentives and subsidies to buy health insurance will be unveiled. Medicaid coverage will be extended to an additional 13 million people and the prescription drug coverage program is expected to improve significantly by the year 2020.

Resources in English:

• Government’s health care website
• New Patient’s Bill of Rights
• Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan website
• Webpage dedicated to small employers
• AARP’s resource on health care reform
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners offers a chart (PDF) on how provisions will be offered and when
• Consumer Reports offers an online hub with plenty of information and a brochure (PDF) for download
• Kaiser Permanente Foundation’s detailed summary on new health care law
• In an interactive feature, The New York Times chronicles a reform that took almost 100 years in the making
• For businesses and health care companies, Deloitte offers many resources and insight

Recursos en español:

• Página de Internet del gobierno
• Nueva Acta de los Derechos del Paciente
• Página de Internet acerca del Plan de Seguro para una Condición Pre-Existente
• Guía sobre la reforma a la salud de AARP y Un comunicado (PDF) explica lo que esta nueva ley significa para los Hispanos en U.S.A.
• Consumer Reports ofrece un folleto (PDF) con los puntos más esenciales de las nuevas reglas sobre la reforma a las leyes de salud

(Photo caption: President Barack Obama’s signature on the health insurance reform bill at the White House, March 23, 2010. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Original article was published on the Being Latino blog.

A Tit for Tat over Trucks AS/COA Online 03/20/09

Trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo)

A move by U.S. Congress to stop a cross-border trucking program drew a counterpunch from Mexico this week. The recently signed U.S. spending bill ended funding for a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to transport cargo inside the United States and vice versa. With the program a long overdue part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico chose to retaliate. The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón unveiled new tariffs for close to 90 industrial and agricultural products imported from the United States. Yet Washington announced a pair of high-profile visits to Mexico by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. President Barack Obama, opening the door to smooth the turbulence over trade and security issues.

As the tariffs were announced, Mexico’s Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said that the now-suspended pilot program had been successful with no major safety incidents. He also said the cancellation of the program is “wrong, protectionist, and clearly violates the [NAFTA] treaty.” A Department of Transportation report found that Mexican truckers registered under the program met all 22 safety mandates demanded by U.S. Congress.

The duties, which went into effect on March 19, represent tariff increases of as much as 45 percent on $2.4 billion worth of exports, explains Sidney Weintraub of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a Forbes.com editorial that breaks down the history of the trucking plan. The Mexican government carefully chose the products on the tariff list “to avoid pushing up prices of staples in Mexico while hitting goods that are important exports for a range of American states. That way, it could have maximum political effect north of the border,” The Economist explains. Wall Street Journal warns that Mexico can turn to other trading partners—Europe, Canada, and Latin America—to replace the U.S. brands. Total trade between Mexico and the United States stood at over $367 billion in 2008.

Trade and trucks are not the only matters troubling U.S.-Mexican relations at the moment. At AS/COA’s recent annual Mexico City conference, Calderón condemned remarks originating in the United States that question Mexico’s institutional strength in the face of violent organized crime. He raised concerns about U.S. drug consumption and arms smuggling and urged joint U.S.-Mexican action to fight drug cartels.

Given the tensions, the timing of the upcoming visits by Obama and Clinton could prove crucial to giving ties between the neighbors a boost. Appearing on National Public Radio’s “Diane Rehm Show,” COA’s Eric Farnsworth explained expects that this bump in trade relations won’t escalate “at a time when, I think, neither nation could afford it.”

Mexico’s El Universal takes a closer look at the trade rift and plans for Obama’s trip to Mexico in advance of April’s Summit of the Americas. Clinton’s visit next week will pave the way for Obama’s. Moreover, the appointment of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as the new U.S. Trade Representative gained congressional approval this week, just in time to tackle the problem. “It will be one gnarly challenge after the next for the new U.S. trade representative, starting with the trade war that erupted this week with Mexico,” says Dallas Morning News.

Some contend that killing plans for a trucking program will result in higher shipping costs. Bloomberg reports that what a truck could haul from one point in Mexico to another in the United States will take three different trucks and one extra day without the program. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that the value of goods transported by truck between both countries rose to $234 billion last year. Mexico’s decision came as the World Bank raised alarm about protectionist measures undertaken by G20 members in the midst of the global financial crisis.

AS/COA hosts a program on March 24 in advance of the Obama and Clinton visits. Learn about the event, which will involve a panel videoconferenced in New York and Washington.

Read the article as originally posted at the AS/COA website.

Brazil Fights Recession with Investments AS/COA Online 01/27/09

Brazil announced a sharp rise in Petrobras investments. (AP Photo)

Brazil began 2009 facing deteriorating economic conditions and rising unemployment. But, through recent actions, the Brazilian government seeks to steer the economy into safer waters by committing billions of dollars to create jobs and propel Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) into the heavyweight category of oil production companies. Furthermore, U.S. President Barack Obama signaled his interest to work with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to move forward on biofuels and the Doha round of global trade talks. Lula will visit Washington to meet with Obama in March.

With the goal of jumpstarting the ailing economy, Brazil’s Central Bank reduced its overnight lending rate by a full percentage point to 12.75 percent on January 21. The move intended to stimulate economic activity at a moment when financial markers signaled the danger of recession; private consumption has shrunk, December job losses hit their highest level since 1999, and analysts predict GDP growth may not reach the 2 percent mark in 2009. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s ViewsWire augurs that industrial growth could be close to zero and private consumption may drop to 0.9 percent in 2009—down from 6.2 percent last year. The analysis applauds the cash infusion of more than $42 billion into the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), designed to stimulate the creation of new employment. The fund helped create 2.8 million jobs in 2008 alone, according to BNDES data. “The businessmen who used to shop for funds on the international market and are not managing to obtain capital due to the financial crisis will be able to resort to the BNDES,” said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega last week.

In tune with the government’s actions, Petrobras unveiled a plan on January 23 that promises a 55 percent expenditure increase over the next five years. The package includes investments of more than $174.4 billion, with $28 billion alone to finance exploration of recently discovered pre-salt oil fields. The company also hopes to double its total oil and natural gas output by 2015, counting on the Tupi oil field and three other offshore camps to begin production. The day after the plan’s release, the first fully Brazilian-made natural gas platform, with capacity to generate electricity for 300,000 people, started operations. This also marks a step forward for Brazil’s naval industry, which will build another eight platforms to be deployed by 2013.

Washington’s new administration has signaled interest in working with South America’s largest economy this week in the fields of energy and trade. Following Monday’s phone conversation between the presidents of both countries, a spokesperson from Lula’s office announced that Obama “is interested in continuing discussions to advance the Doha round” of trade negotiations. In his January 26 edition of his radio show, “Café com o Presidente”urged Obama to push Doha forward.

A new report by AS/COA’s Trade Advisory Group entitled Building the Hemispheric Growth Agenda: A New Framework for Policy proposes creation of a hemispheric energy partnership that would include Brazil: “[A]s a starting point to greater regional integration, the United States and other willing partners across the hemisphere, perhaps as an E4 or E5, should join together to formulate a mutually beneficial hemispheric energy agenda roughly analogous to the original European Coal and Steel Community.” The report also suggests that the new U.S. administration should scrap the 54 cent-per-barrel tariff on Brazilian ethanol and consider a pact for a civil nuclear program similar to the one signed with India during the Bush administraion.

A December AS/COA panel analyzed the investment climate for energy in the region, with an emphasis on Brazilian energy and Latin American integration.

Read the article as published at the AS/COA website.

Download a PDF file here.