Before examining how the federal health reforms will affect the residents of Hawaii, it is important to first have a look at the current situation of healthcare to understand the significance of the Affordability Act in the state.
1. Hawaii has a significantly large older population which is a greater risk of chronic illness.
2. Around 25,000 Hawaiians in the age group of 50-64 do not own any health plans. This is a tricky age group to be in where one is too young to be eligible for Medicare and too old to be burdened with high premiums. Additionally, 11% of the residents, between the age of 19-64 are also without Health Insurance Hawaii
3. Only 1 in 7 residents of Hawaii has access to Medicare
4. 36% of the senior citizens who had owned Medicare, but were not eligible for Part D Low Income Subsidy, had to pay 100% on their prescription drug costs.
5. Residents in Hawaii spend less on prescription drugs as compared to the rest of America.
After the Act is implemented, the changes on the Health Insurance Hawaii will change in the following ways:
- Residents will not be discriminated on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and health status. Insurers have to provide health plans ( Low Income Health Insurance Hawaii ) that provide comprehensive benefits, including providing coverage of the existing medical condition
- Families with annual income less than $101,440 will receive sliding scale subsidies. This will decrease the average spending on health plans ( Health Insurance Hawaii )by decreasing the premiums and hidden health tax.
- 1 in 4 residents in Hawaii does not have health plans. But after the Affordability Act is implemented, 67,000 residents in the state will have health coverage by 2019.
- 18,600 small businesses in Hawaii will be encouraged with small tax credits so that they provide health coverage at work to their employees. Further, if the firm buys group Health Insurance Hawaii from the state based Exchange, then it will purchase the plans at a cheaper rate
- Annual and lifetime caps on health plans ( Health Insurance Hawaii ) will be prohibited and out-of pocket expenses of the residents will be regulated to ensure that residents do not end up paying huge medical bills even after having health coverage
- Health policies will rescind only when there is a clear case of fraud. A strong appeal process will also be developed to ensure that claim disputes are settled.
- Insurers will not able to randomly drop people from coverage when they fall sick.
- Discrimination on the basis of gender and health status be banned
And finally funding will be increased for Medicare, Community Health Centers and National Health Service Corps to serve those residents in Hawaii who live in underserved areas and do not have access to any form of health plan ( Health Insurance Hawaii ).
