VaYank5150
Gold Member
April 7, 2010
Health Care Reform has been covered in the news quite a bit lately. By now, you are aware that on March 23 President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; additional legislation, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, passed by the House of Representatives on the same day made changes to the new law. These changes were approved by the Senate on March 25, and were signed into law by President Obama on March 30.
You probably have questions about how benefits will be affected. Im writing to you today to tell you that there is no immediate impact on either our programs or your coverage. In fact, our plans today already provide the level of coverage required under the new legislation.
There are some provisions, however, that are scheduled to take effect in 2011 that will impact your coverage.
What's Happening in 2011
The table below outlines the provisions that are scheduled to take effect in 2011 and how our benefits are expected to change as a result. Additional changes may occur during Annual Enrollment in October 2010.
Provisions of the New Health Care Reform Law Effective in 2011 Impact on our Benefits Beginning
January 1, 2011
Requires plans to allow dependent children up to age 26 to be covered under parents health plan Plan eligibility rules will be modified to:
Allow dependent children up to age 26 to be covered
Eliminate full-time student requirements for dependent children age 19 to 25
Prohibits certain annual benefit limits and all lifetime maximum benefit limits Applicable annual limits under all plan options will be eliminated
Lifetime maximum benefit limits under the PPO and CDHP plan options will be eliminated (all other plan options currently have unlimited lifetime maximums)
Changes to the eligible expenses allowed for reimbursement under the Health Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and the Health Savings Account (HSA) Over-the-counter drugs will no longer be an eligible expense for reimbursement under the FSA or HSA
What's Next
Our medical plan options remain fully in effect, and throughout 2010 you will continue to have access to the same comprehensive health care and providers that you now have.
We will continue to monitor this legislation and the impact on our benefits. We will also share new information as it becomes available, including details around the next set of provisions scheduled to take effect in 2013 and beyond that would impact our plans.
It is important to know that we remain committed to providing you and your family with broad access to competitive and affordable benefits benefits that meet your needs for good health care and financial well-being.
We all got this as an email this morning. Why is it Caterpillar is expecting to pay $100,000,00.00 extra THIS year and yet the company I work for doesn't seem to have those issues?