Healthy people a goal of federal health care law, speaker says


April 14--Acknowledging that some people don't support the federal Affordable Care Act, the regional director of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services said Wednesday in Wyomissing that discussing the issue should be done with the intent to help Americans be healthier.

Since the act became law a little more than a year ago, the number of uninsured Americans has increased from 46 million to 51 million, Joanne Grossi said at the Crowne Plaza Reading during the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry's annual human resources summit.

That shows how much the act is needed, said Grossi, who leads the agency in a region that includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington.

The act requires all citizens and legal residents to have health insurance by 2014.

Besides helping to keep Americans healthy, the act also makes sense economically, she said.

About $2.3 trillion is spent on health care in the United States every year, she said.

That's 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, a higher total dollar amount and percentage than in any other developed country, she said.

Without reform, that percent would reach 33 percent by 2040, she said.

Under the act, as of last September, many preventive services must be covered without patients owing a co-payment or meeting a deductible, she noted.

Preventive care saves money, she said.

Also, $9 billion is spent every year on health care in Pennsylvania because 63 percent of state residents are overweight and 2.1 million of them smoke, said Grossi, who previously held positions at the Pennsylvania departments of health and public welfare under then-Gov. Ed Rendell.

By 2014, the act also will not allow insurance companies to deny people coverage due to 425 pre-existing conditions that those companies use now, Grossi said.

Last year, 615,000 Americans were denied coverage.

Also, states will have to approve companies' rate hikes, which the companies will have to justify, Grossi said.

Among changes in effect now is that children can remain on parents' insurance plans until they turn 26 unless the children qualify for insurance through their employers.

This even includes children who don't live with their parents, Grossi said.

In a question-and-answer session after her presentation, one man criticized the act, saying he's tired of handouts paid for by taxpayers to those who don't take responsibility for their health. Many of the more than 100 people in the audience applauded him.

Grossi responded that, without the act, "You're already paying for it."

Each insured American pays $1,034 per year in insurance costs to cover costs for the uninsured, she said.

That's not per policy or per family but per person, meaning the annual cost to a family of four is $4,136, she said.

Nine percent of Pennsylvanians are uninsured, she said.

She encouraged people to learn more about the act at www.healthcare.gov.

Contact Jason Brudereck: 610-371-5044 or jbrudereck@readingeagle.com.

-----

To see more of the Reading Eagle, or to subscribe, go to http://www.readingeagle.com.

Copyright (c) 2011, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.



Disclaimer: References or links to other sites from Wellness.com does not constitute recommendation or endorsement by Wellness.com. We bear no responsibility for the content of websites other than Wellness.com.
Community Comments
Be the first to comment.