Essential Health Benefits
The Affordable Care Act requires that all plans cover essential health benefits for individual, family and small group plans.
These are some of the required essential benefits:
- Rehabilitative services and devices
- Laboratory services
- Preventive and wellness services
- Chronic disease management
- Pediatric vision
- Outpatient services
- Emergency services
- Hospitalization
- Maternity and newborn care
- Mental health, substance abuse and behavioral health treatment
- Prescription drugs
The affordable care act was not just about creating plans for the uninsured. It helped to regulate private insurance companies as well, ensuring those essential benefits are offered and protecting the insurance consumers.
Here are some other ways the Affordable Health Care act protects you:
- Requires insurance plans to cover people with pre-existing health conditions, including pregnancy, without charging more
- Provides free preventive care
- Gives young adults more coverage options
- Ends lifetime and yearly dollar limits on coverage of essential health benefits
- Helps you understand the coverage you’re getting
- Holds insurance companies accountable for rate increases
- Makes it illegal for health insurance companies to cancel your health insurance just because you get sick
- Protects your choice of doctors
- Protects you from employer retaliation