(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
This is huge in so many ways, to many for a non medical professional like myself to break it all down.
New Insurance Rules: Free Preventive Health Care
White House Says Insurance Plans Will Cover Cancer Screening and Other Services Without Co-paysJuly 14, 2010 — A variety of preventive services, from immunizations to colonoscopies, is due to be covered without cost to consumers under new insurance plans as part of the health care reform bill.
The new provisions were announced Wednesday afternoon by first lady Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Under the new rules, if you enroll in a new health plan on or after Sept. 23, 2010, the plan must provide recommended preventive care services without cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles.
Details of the provisions were provided at a news teleconference by Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House director of health care reform, and Stephanie Cutter, assistant to the president for special projects.
“Starting on Sept. 23, all new plans have to cover a comprehensive range of preventive services” recommended by doctors and other experts, without out-of-pocket costs, DeParle said.
Preventive Care: What’s Covered? Continued
So I’ll let the above explain as well as Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the White House:
Prevention is a Priority — Now It’s a Reality
July 14, 2010 Earlier today, I joined First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to discuss how the Affordable Care Act will give millions of Americans access to preventive care through their private health insurance.
Today, too many Americans today aren’t getting the preventive health care they need. Right now, for example, 59 million adults and 11 million children depend on private health insurance that doesn’t adequately cover immunizations. And 12 percent of children haven’t visited a doctor in the last year.
The statistics are even more troubling in our minority communities. African-American mothers are 2.5 times as likely as white mothers to begin prenatal care in the 3rd trimester, or not receive it at all. And only 37 percent of Latinos were screened for colon cancer in 2007, compared to 57 percent of whites. Continued
The long term effects of this will start to be seen as it’s implemented and be even more noticeable for the younger adults and especially children who have this advantage early and take better care of themselves as they continue to use this ability, especially in the greater masses of this society that don’t have the wealth and even less then to afford early detection or prevention.
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…. take that dreadful herpes vaccine, an expensive series of 3 shots with known side effects, which in the long run will not prevent a statistically significant amount of cancer- because viruses mutate, and because you still need routine ob- gyn care and exams and pap smears to do that, and thanks to the Stupak contingent and the Catholic Bishops (the Knights of Columbus sell insurance, remember) we have set back access for poor and working class women to get that routine ob gyn care another 50 years.
Just for an example, they’ve been for years now, saying that insurance must provide yearly wellness exams for women- but good luck actually getting one, thanks to the shortage of doctors (think malpractice insurance for births) and then the guidelines for how often they should do the exams are shrinking, used to be 1x a year, then once every 2years, ….. ladda ladda.
The system is so screwed up.
They are geared to dispense drugs, period.
I recently got back a test results blood panel whereby the letter says I don’t have either disease that I do have, according to tests, and that I should consult a nutritionist for diet advice because of borderline higher cholesterol.
I eat fruit and nuts for breakfast. I eat salad with olive oil nearly every day. Should I go gnaw on a tree next ?
I laughed. Those statins are such a racket. Something else will get me first, and I’ve already outlived one parent by age by nearly a decade, only because the internet allowed me to research far enough to figure out what was wrong. These drug companies are not even made to list common allergens on their ingredients lists and every time I take anything I have to have it checked that it won’t set off the auto immune reaction that I officially do not have, thanks to the ineptitude of the medical diagnosing system.
Maybe Michelle and Dr Biden could address the problem of Monsanto trying to ruin the organic milk and dairy industry, by letting GMO alfalfa seed get into the market, when the consumers DO NOT WANT THIS, the sensitive people don’t want the milk with the antibiotic and weedkiller chemical residues, and the only reason Monsanto is wanting GMO alfalfa is to produce the alfalfa seed cheaper in China and import it.
That’s nice about the exercise programs for the school kids, but maybe they could push the Senate to actually fund schools for things like playtime, phys ed, music, band (marching practice) and keeping teachers instead of layoffs, and not for mandatory “test test test” no child left untested behind nonsense, and get rid of that useless Arne Duncan, whom everybody in real education despises, while you’re at it. Oh, and those colleges you want everybody to attend or re- train at are getting slammed with tuition hikes and fee hikes so students can’t afford to attend because classes are getting cut.
When we spend half our nation’s income to run the world’s largest military and multiple foreign wars, we don’t have leftovers for things like decent schools.
Oh, and about Arizona…. are you seriously going to let more schoolchildren get deported because of the Tea Party, as an educational cost cutting measure ? What about that American values system ?
Maybe they could stop thinking it’s okay for drug companies to push addictive substances on the unknowing, (why does everyone suddenly need to be on a mood altering anti depressant drug, but pot is illegal and you’re spending millions to interdict it) or for them to hook patients on those $2000 a month or more biological modifier treatments, and then have the insurance companies jerk their coverage. Say, the one blogger who worked really hard to stop the drug companies from extending patent coverage an extra long time on those biologicals, is considered a Very Bad Firebagger by your buddies at the OFA.
There’s a lot of discrepancies in the way we do things.
What happens to those who do not have a job and cannot afford insurance. What good is a “free” program where the requirement is to sign up for a policy you cannot afford in the first place?
This is nothing more than throwing a few peanuts to the crowd.
And then add to that the cutting food stamps and WIC. The selective prosecution of various misdeameanors, while at the same time looking the other way for several egregious crimes to include misappropriation of tax payer dollars, torture, murder, and war crimes.