"A recent report from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation shows that about half of those surveyed believe that if reform passes, insurance market rules would change, financial aid would start and insurers would have to begin accepting customers with pre-existing conditions, all within the first year."
WRONG.
Thats not true.. The Washington Post brings up that "Some of the main reforms would not take place for several years, and even when they do, some observers say, the bill does too little to make sure they would be enforced." (Until 2014, insurers will continue to deny coverage or charge higher premiums on expensive individual plans based on people's medical history. And even after 2014, no changes apply to group plans at all. Discrimination by health and age is how they price plans.) Another highly touted reform, banning lifetime limits on coverage (annual caps are permitted) would take effect in 2010. Even with those rules in place,"there's no power to really hold the insurance companies accountable," said consumer advocate Betty Ahrens, executive director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network. "It's toothless."
For hundreds of millions of Americans, the new healthcare bill won't come soon enough, as millions of people with pre-existing conditions will have to wait until 2014 for the change to age-adjusted community rating and the chance to buy individual insurance policies at market rates, adjusted by as much as 300% due to their age instead of by their health status. (So, then the price will keep going up.)
This built-in half decade delay is going to result in the hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, as well as the obscene profits, continuing for the forseeable future, as people struggle with not being able to pay for healthcare. Even after the changeover, few will be able to afford the new permissions to buy unsubsidized overpriced individual insurances through the OPM plans, just as many Federal employees cannot afford even the 75% subsidized plans now.
How is the new law going to work for those with pre-existing conditions? An article in the Baltimore Sun explains that they won't do anything at all for quite some time. However, starting in 2014, people who have pre-existing conditions will have insurance priced by their age, instead of by their health status. That could mean that people with illnesses like cancer will be able to buy insurance if they have the money. That should save the government money.