How to Calculate the Effect of the 2010 Healthcare Reform Bill on Your Life

The Health Care Reform Bill, later split into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 21, 2010. Signed into law by President Barack Obama two days later, the healthcare reform bill affects individuals who do not currently have healthcare as well as seniors who fall into the "doughnut hole" coverage gap in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan, plus many other Americans. Calculate -- or at least estimate -- how this will affect you.

Things You'll Need

• Timeline for healthcare reform bill

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Instructions

• 1

  Study a timeline of the healthcare reform bill to find out when changes will be implemented. For example, in 2010 alone, the following changes took place: Uninsured individuals who have pre-existing conditions were scheduled to get health coverage through a temporary program that will be put in place until the new state health insurance exchanges for small business and individuals begin operating in 2014. Seniors who encounter the doughnut hole in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan received a $250 rebate starting June 10, 2010. Insurance companies are no longer able to drop insured people when they fall ill. Children can no longer be excluded for pre-existing conditions. Dependent children may stay on their parents' health insurance until they are 26. And small businesses get a tax credit to help them give coverage to employees. More changes were scheduled for the following years. By 2014, most people must buy health insurance, and healthcare tax credits will help people with incomes four times that of poverty level pay for their healthcare coverage.

• 2

  Calculate your healthcare expenses before any of the healthcare bill changes took effect. Take into account preventative and condition-related care for all the members of your family. If you do not currently have health insurance and tend not to see the doctor for that reason, make calculations based on what you would have spent previously in health costs.

• 3

  Until the finalized exact figures of what the tax credits will amount to and who is eligible are available, try to estimate how much of a tax credit you'll receive, if any, by reading the key points of the bill. Charts of family income and the proposed tax credit amounts are available.

• 4

  Follow the appropriate link for your situation at http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform, where you'll find information on the impact of the Health Care Reform Bill on your particular situation if you have insurance through work, are a small business owner, have no health insurance, have Medicare or buy your own insurance.

• 5

  Check with your current insurance company about any changes to health care premiums in the upcoming months or years. If you do not have healthcare now, you will not need to purchase it until 2014. If you wish to add yourself or children with pre-existing conditions, contact an insurance company for quotes.

• 6

  Based on the healthcare expenses without the health reform and the projected expenses, calculate the difference between premiums and healthcare costs now and the costs, minus any estimated credits, once the healthcare reform bill takes effect.

• 7

  If you are a senior and know you will fall into the coverage gap, or doughnut hole, of the Medicare prescription drug program (part D), for your 2011 calculation, subtract half your brand-name prescription drug medical expenses that fall in the coverage gap, as there is a 50 pecent reduction in the doughnut hole in 2011 due to the passing of the healthcare bill. The one-time $250 refund check is sent automatically by Medicare to those who hit the coverage gap in 2010.

• 8

  Visit authoritative sites like HealthCare.gov to keep up with the latest news on health care reform. There you can click on your state and find out how the health reform bill affects you.