My Personal Finance Blog

There’s much debate around the healthcare system reform proposed by President Barack Obama. And while there are many people who protest against it, and those who support it, it is important to know what it is all about in the first place. Here is a short overview of the reform, which is comprised of three essential parts:

1. Assure all American citizens with access to comprehensive and affordable health coverage

The main features of this part are:

• New Public National Health Plan, which will be very close to the current health coverage provided to federal employees. The main difference is that the new plans will be available to all US citizens for a reasonable price no matter of their financial situation. Deductibles and co-payments will be reduced to minimum, while low-income persons will have the possibility to use additional subsidies.
• National Health Insurance Exchange, which will allow US citizens to look for private health plans. It will set regulations on private insurance providers in order to make sure that private plans are not too different form public ones.
• New business mandate requiring national enterprises to pay for the Public National Health Plan.
• Individual mandate aimed specifically at children.
• More support provided to existing programs like Medicaid and SCHIP.

2. Improve the quality of healthcare services and lower their costs

This initiative presumes federal financial assistance for improving the quality of the services and lowering the costs, with additional assistance to enterprises that cover high-risk employees.

To President’s belief the following actions may also contribute to lowering cost and improving services:

• Special disease management programs for improving chronic care.
• Improving transparency in what concerns quality and costs of healthcare offered by providers.
• Lowering the rates of medical errors.
• Introducing financial incentives to stimulate substantial improvements.
• Providing support for researching new and alternative healthcare technologies.
• Eliminating ethnic disparities in access and quality of healthcare services.
• Popularizing health IT.
• Stronger regulation of insurance and drug markets in order to lower medication costs and allow cheap health insurance.
• Preventing Medicare private plan participants from overpaying.

3. Wellness and healthy lifestyle promotion

This initiative is to be supported through the following actions:

• Special wellness programs at working places.
• Eliminating child obesity with school activities.
• Better education for present and future healthcare workers.
• Promotion of healthy lifestyle in communities.

Saving possibilities with the new initiatives

President Obama estimates that in average a typical American family will be able to save about $2,500 on an early basis after the plan will be implemented. These are the possible sources for such savings:

• Health IT introduction and implementation.
• Improved quality of services.
• Limitations on health insurance provider profits.
• Federal funding of catastrophic coverage that will lead to cheap health insurance.
• Universal coverage availability.

As you can see the Plan requires significant federal funding and that is one of the major points of those who are against it. Other arguments include direct implication to health insurance market, which of course is not quite welcome by the insurance companies. But is the idea of cheap health insurance for everyone that bad?

CHIP stands for Children’s Health Insurance Program and was initiated by the Congress in 1997. It is a special program connecting federal and state government with the aim to provide additional health coverage to uninsured children and future mothers who don’t have the financial abilities to purchase a separate individual policy but still don’t qualify for Medicaid.

On February 4, 2009, CHIP was expanded by President Obama’s passing of law on Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA). This expansion raises the number of children within CHIP from 7 million to 11 million and extends its payment through 2013.

Who qualifies for CHIP?

CHIP is something between Medicaid and private insurance plans. Those who have too much income for Medicaid but still can’t afford private plans may use CHIP.

CHIP eligibility rules are different in each state. Still, in the majority of states, children who are younger than 18 years old and whose families earn $44,100 or less a year are eligible for CHIP.

The number of family members strongly influences the income value making it possible to opt for CHIP. For instance, a family of four can earn up to $44,100 while a family of two the upper income limit for being eligible for CHIP is $29,140 a year.

What is the cost of CHIP?

It all depends on the place you live in and how much your family earns, but in most cases you will have to pay a small fee on a monthly basis in order to receive coverage. In some states you may also encounter start-up fees and co-payments for each service received. For instance, it will cost you $35 to start the coverage in Colorado and each doctor visit or service will cost you between $2 and $5.

With CHIP health insurance you get very low fees for the services, but they are quite often related to your family’s income. For example, the monthly fee for CHIP coverage in the state of New York is only $9 and children from families with higher income may apply. In the state of Illinois however, having an income between $44,000 and $66,156 per year will result in a $40 monthly premium paid for each child.

What are the benefits provided by CHIP?

The list benefits you can get through CHIP varies from one state do another. However there’s a minimum set of requirements the program is obliged to provide regardless of the location:

• regular check-ups
• immunizations
• dental services
• hospital care
• emergency room services
• laboratory and x-ray visits

As said earlier, in some states you will be required to pay certain fees for getting the coverage or cover a part of services provided through CHIP. Still, it is a strict requirement that preventive care is absolutely free in all states through CHIP.

CHIP can be a possibility to get cheap health insurance for those who really need it. Children are very important to us and having their health protected is very crucial for parents. Don’t try to save money on health insurance coverage for your children because there are programs like CHIP and Medicaid that can help you if your income doesn’t allow you to get medical coverage from a private insurance company.