Snap Johnson Updates Rotary on Changes in Healthcare

Snap Johnson spoke about changes in healthcare to the regular meeting of the Iowa Great Lakes Rotary on Wednesday, June 22. Snap has over 40 years of insurance experience and shared some of the details of the healthcare reform bill – the largest piece of legislation page-wise ever (27,000 pages). The goal is to make insurance affordable and accessible to those 34 million people today who do not have insurance. The cost of the legislation is $940 billion. Some of the changes that took place in 2010 were a surtax on tanning beds, non-dependent children can stay on health insurance to the age of 26, and amount paid by companies is now listed on W2 forms. For 2011, some of the changes to take place are that the government is establishing its own program for uninsurable individuals (34,500 people in Iowa fall in this category – only 456 signed up for the state program), preventative care is 100% covered (unless plan is grandfathered), no pre-existing conditions for children under the age of 19, no over the counter meds are covered on HSA/Medical spending accounts, and Medicare shrunk its $200 donut hole on drugs/prescriptions. Big changes coming in the future include in 2014, self-employed get chance to buy own insurance through exchanges, and in 2015, employers can go to the exchanges for insurance.