Snap Fact #218 - ObamaCare Provides Protection From Insurance Company Cancellations!

Personal testimony:“We no longer have to lose sleep worrying about heading for bankruptcy when we hit the lifetime cap on our health insurance policy.” - Bill, of Santa Clara, Calif., who was until recently quickly approaching a lifetime limit on his policy for treatment of his daughter’s spinal muscular atrophy.Here’s how it works:

• Insurers can’t impose a lifetime limit on your benefits, meaning you don’t have to worry about your coverage maxing out when you most need it.

• Annual benefit limits are phasing out too, rising from $750,000 to $2 million per year before they are abolished in 2014.

• If you disagree with a benefit decision by your insurer, new independent appeals give consumers a standard, reliable way to dispute coverage decisions.

• Health insurers can’t arbitrarily cancel your coverage if you get sick or if you made an honest mistake on your application..

• You can now obtain preventive care such as annual exams and cancer screenings with no out-of-pocket costs.

There's some fine print:

• Some plans received temporary waivers delaying the requirement that they end annual benefit limits.

• Ending lifetime and annual limits applies only to “essential” health benefits as determined by the federal government.

• Insurers can still cancel your policy for fraud or intentional misrepresentation, such as concealing a recent cancer diagnosis.

• New rights of appeal, free preventive care, and phased out annual limits don’t apply to many grandfathered plans.