White House Unveils Free Preventative Services

[SpartanDem]

Source: WSJ

WASHINGTON—Treatments to prevent alcohol abuse, depression and obesity are among the services that will be free to consumers with new insurance plans starting in September.

As part of the new health law, the Obama administration on Wednesday released rules specifying which preventive health services insurers must provide to consumers at no additional cost. Democrats hope the change will be one of the most popular early pieces of the sweeping legislation.

"Services like these will go a long way in preventing chronic illness," First Lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday.

Under the provision, health plans initiated after Sept. 23 must cover preventive health services at no additional cost to the consumer. People who stay on their existing health plans won't benefit from the change.

For adults, the list of covered services includes mammograms, colonoscopies and other cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, counseling for tobacco use and certain types of pre-natal care. For children, it includes pediatric visits, vision and hearing screening, developmental assessments, immunizations and obesity screenings.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703394204575367501058230756.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Are these services currently covered by Medicare?

[Cleita]

2. Sure let's insure the healthy as usual and call it

prevention. Nothing seems to have changed here. I know Michelle's heart is in the right place but she's drinking the health industry's Kool-Aid. What prevents chronic illness is decent food and jobs that aren't toxic. When America goes back to work with decent jobs for decent pay, you will magically have a healthier population.

[superduperfarleft]

3. So statistics showing increased levels of obesity, studies showing that Americans are leading

a much more sedentary lifestyle than they once did, and the anecdotal evidence that everyone I know who is over 40 is on medicine for blood pressure and cholesterol is all part of some gigantic Big Pharma plot?

No, preventive care coverage seeks to encourage a change to more healthy behaviors before something serious (and expensive) pops up. And it prevents people from dying of pneumonia because they didn't have the money to go to an ER.

Obesity rates were skyrocketing during the Clinton years, when the economy was doing great, so trying to make a correlation there is really reaching.

[Cleita]

6. No correlation, just an observation that insurance

companies don't like paying for sick people so they hide behind this wellness fig leaf. Also, poor diet leads to a lot of of the conditions you mention and that's among the working class, who even in the best of times are overworked and lack time to do what it takes to eat healthy, not the middle class of the Clinton years before their techie jobs all went to India and elsewhere. But you keep your head in that cloud if it makes you happy.

[SpartanDem]

7. The sick will be insured

rescission will be banned by September and few years pre-existing conditions. I'd giving be people free preventive care is a big change how many Americans forgo these things because of co-pays and deductibles? This will save lives count on it.

[Doremus]

11. Spoken as someone who hasn't had to pay for well-baby care or immunizations lately.

That benefit alone is quite worthwhile.

It cost us a fortune to pay for the kids' checkups and vaccinations.

Too bad we won't be able to take advantage of the free mammos and colonoscopies, unless our insurance decides to offer them at no cost, not bloody likely.

[Cleita]

14. What if we just had decent health care like...oh say...

Canada who covers all those things for half of what it costs us to have nothing except smoke and mirrors.

[bergie321]

4. Is there a "screening" for obesity?

Isn't that just a scale?

[No Elephants]

17. Scale DIAGNOSES obesity. the OP claims treatments to PREVENT obesity. alcohol abuse and

depression. Why isn't every infant given those "treatments?" Would sure cut health care costs and a host of other problems.

[BootinUp]

5. If congress doesn't fuck it up going forward

this legislation will someday be seen as quite revolutionary and Americans will love it. Might take a decade or so.

[SunnySong]

8. And if they find Cancer the government covers the cost of treatment right?

seriously i am curious here.

[Cleita]

9. I believe that's in 2014, isn't it?n/t

[SpartanDem]

10. Your insurance would cover the cost

[dflprincess]

13. After you've reached your maximum deductible, copays and coinsurance

or whatever your carrier calls your out of pockets. And, of course, only covered expenses count toward that max out of pocket expense.

The problem with what we call preventative is that many of the tests are actually screening (pap smears, mammograms and colonoscopies to name a few) and actually prevent nothing though they can catch problems early.

Many, if not most, insurance policies already cover screening tests often because they are already mandated by varous state and federal laws. However, there is growing evidence that insurance policies that have high out of pockets actually result in people skipping or delaying the covered screenings because they worry about being able to pay for any follow up the test may show they need.

A couple years ago it cost over $6,000 (the rate the insurance company had negotiated, without insurance it would have run closer to $11,000) to find out the funny spot on my mammagram was benign. At the time I still had decent insurance and it only cost me about $800 (and I was lucky to have that). With the "coverage" I have now the out of pocket would run just over $2160 and I'm really wondering if I should bother with the mammogram this year.

Of course, I could always put the costs on a credit card - the other industry that stands to win big with the insurance scam that was passed.

And keep in mind that the "reform" bill allows bigger out of pockets than this.

[Duer 157099]

12. How about just revamping the farm subsidy program so that

fresh fruits and vegetables are CHEAPER for people to eat than McDonalds!!!

[killbotfactory]

15. Good policy, should have been done fifty years ago

I'm kind of baffled that anyone is hostile to this news.

[No Elephants]

16. What "treatments" "prevent" depression, alcohol use and obesity again?

I have a feeling we are talking something like informational pamphlets here.