Changes coming to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the next couple of years will see baby boomers reaping more benefits than any other age group, according to an article from USA Today.
Victims of shrinking retirement “nest egg” funds, unemployment, and rising health care costs in recent years, the federal government’s adjustments to the ACA will help provide health care access to “pre-65 retirees in a significant way,” writes the article.
Among the benefits boomers will receive under the changes include less discrimination in pre-existing condition treatment, payment options, and state-operated health insurance exchanges.
USA Today writes:
Beginning in 2014, the law is supposed to prevent insurers from denying coverage to those who have a pre-existing condition. On Nov. 20, the Obama administration said that it was moving forward to implement provisions to ban discrimination and protect consumers from possible insurance abuses.
The ACA also will do away with lifetime and annual dollar limits on benefits, and it will limit the age rating so that a Boomer can only pay three times as much as a younger person.
Health insurance will not necessarily be less costly. It will be operated by state health insurance exchanges, which will offer a competitive private health insurance market that should provide one-stop shopping.
The ACA is likely to trigger more changes, the article notes. Employers still offering retiree health benefits might opt to provide Boomer retirees a fixed amount of money—a premium reimbursement—that could be used to select health insurance at their state exchange marketplace.
Read the full USA Today article here.
Written by Jason Oliva
